Secrets
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: Arthur & Ariadne, Another Universe. New York 1904, Ariadne is hired as a ladies maid to Arthur's mother. She must hide the secret of her past at all cost to keep her place. Arthur comes home, with a few secrets of his own.
1. Chapter 1

**_Secrets _**

**New York **

**1904 **

1.

~ Ariadne tried to sit as strait as she could. It would look bad if her future employer thought she was any smaller than she was.

Her sister's words were clanging in her head just now. Instructions on how to sit in front of the fearsome lady. To keep her hands folded, her ankles crossed and for the love of God, sit strait.  
>Mrs. Willows looked over Ariadne as if she meant to buy her.<p>

"You're very small." The older woman said.

"It's never kept me from my work." Ariadne said quickly.

"Tell me what skills you have." Mrs. Willows said airily. As if she had made up her mind that she wouldn't take Ariadne and this was a simple formality leading up to the '_No_' that would end this little game.

"I can sew quite well. I've brought over a few pieces." Ariadne said hopefully. She pulled out her homemade bag and tried to fish out the neat little hems she had done by hand. The examples of darts she could do.

Mrs. Willows waved her away and picked up her own embroidery.

"I understand you worked as a house maid for the Dawson family." She said slyly. Her dark clever eyes never leaving her small stitches.  
>"Yes, ma'am." Ariadne said sadly.<p>

"How long?"

"Ten years." Ariadne said. She swallowed hard. "My mother had become ill and she sent me to train in service before she died. I was twelve when I started as a third house maid."

"Managed to work your way up to ladies maid then?" Mrs. Willows mused.

"Yes, ma'am." Ariadne said quickly.

"Why did you leave? After so long there?" Mrs. Willows seemed genially puzzled but Ariadne suspected the older woman already knew everything.  
>"The house changed so much. The young ladies were all married off. There wasn't a need for a ladies maid and I didn't want to go back to being a house maid." Ariadne said quickly.<br>"I should think not." Mrs. Willows huffed.

Ariadne sat a little straiter.

Mrs. Willows was quite and the only noise in the sitting room was the sharp rickety sounds of the mantle clock ticking.

Finally, Mrs. Willows sat down her needle work and looked Ariadne in the eye.

"My sons wanted me to hire an older maid. Someone with whom I'd have more in common with. They think that, with my husband so ill, that I need companionship." She said.

Ariadne nodded.

_Here comes the no._

"I'm not sure what I would talk about with you. You being so young and all." She said.

Ariadne smiled. But it was a sad smile all the same.

"I can tell you right now, I won't spend my time with a woman my own age talking about their grown children and grandchildren. I get enough of that from Mrs. Thomas at club meetings. I want a young person who isn't so stuck in the past. This is a new century after all. Amazing things are happening all over the world." She went on.

Ariadne felt a small ray of happiness rush through her.  
>"Now, you'll start at 9 am every week day. You're duties will be a type of paid companion. Someone who will go out with me on my daily excursions and keep me company here at the house. My husband isn't exactly ill, nor is he healthy. My sons have all married except my youngest, Arthur who is traveling. For now, it's just myself, Mr. Willows, our maid Jenny our cook, Sophie and our gardener Jeffery who is also our driver. I can't exactly take Jenny around town with me, what with her being Irish and all. But you speak very well for a house worker and you look very pleasing. Mind, you'll have to dress better on the occasions when we go out for lunch."<p>

Ariadne couldn't think of anything to say, her mouth opened and she thought a 'yes, ma'am' cam out.

"Now, you'll start on Monday and first thing we'll do is ready my spring wardrobe. I'll need a few things let out and it's a project I need help on. You're not to take any orders from my sons, Jacob and Eugene. Understand?"

"I do." Ariadne said. Relief, wonderful relief was flooding over her.

"About pay, I think eight dollars a week will be more than enough. Especially when you'll be eating your meals here and all. Do you have family or any other obligations?"

Ariadne paused. Only eight dollars a week? She had made that at the Dawson's but she didn't have to contribute to rent then either. Not with the cozy little attic room in their big manor house.  
>"I live with my sister now. In the city." She told her.<br>"Well, then you should be all set." Mrs. Willow said happily.

Then, just as easily, Ariadne was dismissed.

~ The walk home was slow, but happy. Yes, she had a job. An easy one to. The bad part, the really troubling part, was that it wasn't going to be enough pay. Her sister, Annabelle, was going to need at least twenty dollars a month for her share of the rent and for watching Wesley while Ariadne was at her new job.

Annabelle's own husband, Bill, didn't care to have Ariadne, or 'the bastard' around the apartment, but they had no where else to go. After the disaster at the Dawson's place, Ariadne still owed money for the hospital bill, and a few other creditors.

She wouldn't even have enough money to buy the new clothes Mrs. Willows was expecting her to buy. Not even to mention the groceries she needed to pick up along with Wesley's medicine.

Still, after eight months of relying on her sister's charity, Ariadne was grateful to have a job at last.

~ Annabelle's apartment was large, airy and well worth the amount the landlord charged in rent. There were three bedrooms and a whole bathroom all to themselves. Unheard of! It had been a part of a tenement rehabilitation project the city had founded and Annabelle's husband had claimed the apartment because he was a foreman on the project.

They couldn't make the rent without Ariadne working however. It always felt like they were living on borrowed time.

"How did it go?" Annabelle asked as soon as Ariadne came home and took her hat off. The children, all five of them, were caged off in the sitting room. None of them were over the age of seven, including the twins.

Annabelle got them weaned and off dippers as quickly as she could, only to find there was another baby on the way.

Ariadne said nothing, and spotted little Wesley, his dark patch of hair ruffled from sleep, sitting up all on his own.

"When did he start doing that?" Ariadne asked in amazement. She had never seen Wesley want to sit up before.

"This morning." Annabelle giggled. "Cora was playing school and made all the little ones sit up.

Ariadne sat down next to her little boy and curled an arm around him, kissing the top of his head.

"So, how did it go?" Annabelle asked impatiently.

"I got the job." Ariadne said sadly. "I can make my share of the rent now."

"That's wonderful. Bill will be thrilled." Annabelle whooped.

"Don't get too excited." Ariadne told her. "It's only eight dollars a week and the woman expects me to buy new clothes and everything."

"Well, as long as you come up with the five dollars in cash every payday." Annabelle said.  
>"What I'm saying is, I don't think I should pay so much." Ariadne said defiantly to her sister. "I only rent out the small bedroom and Wesley and I don't eat much."<p>

"Ariadne." her sister said worriedly. "We agreed on this."

"It doesn't take that much to look after him during the day. Not with the other kids."

"Bill is not going to let you stay here if you keep saying stuff like that." Annabelle told him. "He's already mad that the boys have to camp out in the sitting room each night."

Ariadne sighed.

Annabelle was scared of Bill. Scared of being on her own. When he came home, Ariadne was quick to take herself and her little boy to the small bedroom and not come out again till morning.

The two of them were their own family in the little room. They ate their meager dinner together, played and Ariadne whispered fairy tales she made up to him. Wesley would look back at her with his father's eyes. Eyes that made Ariadne's heart hurt, but not from love.

~ Arthur thought it was like their own little family in this train car.

Everleigh was keeping herself occupied with the blank paper and pencils he had given her for entertainment. He was grateful the child didn't take much. They sat on either side of their private train car, each keeping a suspicious eye on the other. Two strangers, yet family, on a train ride.

Everleigh liked the captain's desk Arthur let her use during the ride. He had to clear out his own stationary and ink jars for her. It was worth it to keep her occupied on such a long trip.

"Everleigh, tell me when you're hungry." He said worriedly. He wasn't sure how often he was supposed to feed the child or exactly what she needed to eat. Everleigh seemed to need food more often than him and she ate much less.

"Yes, sir." She said in her high child's voice.

"Everleigh." Arthur said.

The child looked back at him with her warm, brown eyes.

"Remember we talked about this. You need to call me papa. Remember?"

Everleigh nodded, but said nothing. Her pencil still cradled in her thin little hand.

She was only four years old, he sensed she was far more intelligent than the other, sloppy children had had seen her age.

Everleigh was like his own mother, calm, reserved and kept her thoughts only to herself. She wasn't like a child at all, but a strange little alien.

He leaned back against his seat and they stared at one another for a while. Neither of them seeming to trust the other.

'_Mother will know what to do._' Arthur thought. He willed the train to move faster as his daughter went back to her drawing.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

~ The mornings work was easy enough. Sorting through Mrs. Willows' old clothing was even a little fun. The woman had a groaning collection of elegant evening wear, classic dresses and an entire room devoted to her hat collection.

"My William and I used to love to travel." She mused as Ariadne made little signs for each hat box indicting if it would be suitable for summer or winter events. "Took me on a trip to India after we were married. Almost stayed there. Such a beautiful country and the people were so kind. But, I fell ill with some kind of fever and had to come back home."

Ariadne said nothing to all this, but listened. She couldn't imagine what it was like to travel the world like that. To honeymoon in a strange and beautiful country. She knew she never would either.

"Back then, traveling was a time consuming activity." Mrs. Willows went on. "There were no modern ships like there are now. It took weeks and even months to get to a place. You had to be ready. When William and I went to Egypt, we were stuck a smelly river boat for three weeks. It took us almost a year to finish our european tour. In fact, I had already had my first child by the time we came home."

"That must have been scary, having a baby in a strange country." Ariadne said. Memories of the half drunk midwife helping her birth Wesley, and the baby not wanting to come out right haunted her.  
>"Oh it was dreadful." Mrs. Willows told her. "The nurses spoke no english at all, but there was a real lady doctor in Italy that delivered my little Cassandra."<br>"Cassandra?" Ariadne asked. She hadn't heard that name before. Wasn't even aware that there was a daughter in the family.

Mrs. Willows looked sad a moment.  
>"Yes, she was my first. She was always a little sickly. She passed away when she was two of the same fever I had. Very difficult." Mrs. Willows told her. She looked up at Ariadne and seemed to compose herself. "Traveling that is. Traveling is difficult."<p>

Ariadne nodded and knew it wasn't her place to ask about dead babies.

"Shall we take in the spring dresses? You've lost some weight, but I think they're still fashionable." Ariadne told her.  
>"No, I'm far too old now for yellows and violets." Mrs. Willows laughed. "But they might work for you. Take the yellow one home and work on it. Your frame is so tiny, dear, You might drown in it, but you would look charming if you can get it fitted right."<p>

"Thank you." Ariadne said shyly. She had never owned an expensive dress like this before. Even as a handle down.  
>"Originally, I wore it with a modest amount of petticoats, but no one dresses like that now. You can cut down the fabric, make it more modern." Mrs. Willows mused and ran a hand over the fabric.<p>

"I will certainly try." Ariadne told her.  
>Mrs. Willows stood, her height regal and handsome.<p>

"I must check on William. He isn't well you know."

"Yes, Madam." Ariadne told her. "I'll finish cleaning up in here.

"If it doesn't rain, we can walk to the library. It's quite close. Do you read much?" she asked.  
>"I wish I read more, but there is always so much to do." Ariadne said truthfully.<br>"Well, we must get ourselves in the habit. I enjoy talking about literature." Mrs. Willows said before leaving the room.

Ariadne had to smile at herself. The Dawson family never treated her like this in all her days. It was almost like Mrs. Willows thought of her as a guest and not an employee. At the Dawson's Ariadne had to be up by six every morning to attend to Ester and Gemma. Two wicked girls who were always starved for attention and complained when their hair wasn't just right. Who fought over who got to wear what. Ariadne had to wear her crisp uniform, washed every night and hung to dry and always had to curtsey the girls out of the room.

Still she knew no other way. Once she cleaned up after the girls, set the room in order, she started on mending their dresses and working or hair pieces. A challenge to any good ladies maid. It was easier when Annabelle worked in the house with her. She had someone to help her. But, Annabelle was too plain faced for a ladies maid and was regulated to house work. Still, every meal time, the staff were together downstairs in their very own sitting room, at their very own table. All of them reading letters from home, interesting stories from the paper and the boys playing the piano until it was dinner time.

Ariadne missed that the most of the big house. She sensed no such fellowship with Jenny and Sophie. The cook was a large woman who wanted to be left alone at all times. The house maid was loud and her voice carried all through the house. Neither women seemed to like Ariadne.

She had seen Mr. Willows only once. He and his wife were sitting in the parlor and playing cards. He didn't look very sick, in fact he walked very well and seemed happy. But, the look on his face, the confusion at everything around him, made her realize something was very wrong.

~ It was raining when Arthur's cab stopped in front of his childhood home. It was a large, imposing brick building. His father had it built long before the youngest son was even thought of. Nothing about it had changed over the years, not the furniture or style. His mother installed a bathroom for the domestics a few years ago, along with a bathroom for the family upstairs, that was a modern as the woman wanted to get.

He was about to shut the cab door when he remembered the little inconvenience holding out her hand to him.

He leaned down to help her out of the cab, his umbrella shielding the both of them from the wet.

"It's cold!" Everleigh whined.

"I know, we'll be inside in a minute." Arthur told her.

He nodded to the cab driver.  
>"The trunks, sir." He barked. His patience was already wearing thin. He didn't know what to do with this little girl anymore.<p>

~ Ariadne was having such a good time unpacking the clothes, she hadn't noticed the rain.

'_Something I'll have to walk home in_.' she thought bitterly.

She hated the rain more than anything in the world. Rain meant cold, rain meant being indoors. Rain meant people growing bored indoors and that always meant trouble.

She heard the front door bell ring and waited for Jenny to answer it.

In the Dawson house, the butler or one of the footmen answered the door and never one of the maids. But here, she wasn't sure what the rules were. They had no butler or even a valet for Mr. Willows.

Ariadne left her collection of clothing and looked down the hallway.

The front door buzzed angrily again and she knew the visitor would be out in the cold rain.

'I suppose if Jenny answers the door, I may as well to.' Ariadne decided.

The town home was blessed with it's own small foyer that allowed a waiting area for guests without coming into the home entirely.

She could barely make out the figure behind the decorative glass.

No sooner has she turned the knob than the front door was rudely pushed open and a man shoved his way in.

"Jenny, go get mother and tell her I've arrived back home. I know it's unexpected. Have cook prepare this child something to eat and I think she might need to go to bed soon. It's been a long trip." The man barked angrily as droplets of water flew everywhere in the foyer. Ariadne barely had time to register the young man and small child by his side, before she was pushed aside by a hulking cab driver.

"That will be five dollars." The cabbie said throwing down two massive trunks, water soaked from the rain and covered with traveling stickers.

The young man, his face sour looking, reached into his breast pocket and pulled free a wallet. He fished out the cash, a tip and waved the driver off.  
>"Jenny, have Jeffery take my trunks up to my old room." The sour looking man ordered.<p>

Ariadne opened her mouth to explain, but stopped herself when he turned and saw she wasn't the large Irish girl he was expecting.  
>"Who are you?" he barked.<p>

Ariadne saw the little girl, her face looking pale and thin under dark hair.

"I'm Ariadne." She explained. "I'm Mrs. Willows' ladies maid.

"Mother would never hire a ladies maid." The man barked. "Where's Jenny? Where's the house maid?"

"I'm so sorry, are you Jacob or Eugene?" Ariadne asked.  
>"Arthur!" came a shout from the top of the stairs.<p>

All three of them looked up to see Mrs. Willows rushing downstairs to greet him.  
>"Arthur, darling! I thought I heard your voice!" she cried and hugged what Ariadne now knew was the youngest son, come home at last.<p>

"Mother-" Arthur said uncomfortably.

"Arthur, why didn't you write and say you were coming home? I would have sent Jeffery to collect you. In this rain and the bad weather." She went on.  
>"You've hired a ladies maid?" he questioned and Ariadne felt her skin prickle hot.<p>

"I'll tell Jeffery about he trunks, madam." Ariadne said with a curtsy.

"Oh tell Jenny to ready Arthur's old room!" Mrs. Willows sang out happily.  
>"Yes ma'am. Shall I take the girl to cook for something to eat?" Ariadne asked and nodded to the pale, thin child by Arthur's side.<p>

The little girl looked positively mutinous under the dark, unruly hair.

Mrs. Willows stopped and stared at the girl as though she were the strangest creature she had ever seen.

The older woman gave a laugh.

"Arthur, what are you doing with this… with this child?" she asked. Surely there was some joke being played on her just now.

Ariadne knew she shouldn't be here, but mother, son and child were blocking her only escape.

"Mother, this is Everleigh." Arthur told the older woman. "My daughter."


	3. Chapter 3

3.

~ Ariadne didn't wait for Mrs. Willows to respond. The look of confusion, shock and down right repulsion gave her all the information she needed.

Too many times at the Dawson home had she experienced just this situation. The Dawson's had three grown sons who were always involved in some type of scandal. Some girl in trouble and the family hushing it up. It was never truly hushed, however. There was always the gossip of servants.

"Come along, child." Ariadne said in the kindest voice she could manage. "We can see if cook has something nice to eat."

She side stepped the rude intruder known as Arthur and took the little girl's small hand. It was like touching ice. The child must have been out in the chill for too long this evening.

"Mother." Arthur was saying while Ariadne and the little girl made a mad dash for the safety and warmth of the kitchen.

"Sophie, we have a visitor." Ariadne sang out to avoid hearing Mrs. Willows response.

The kitchen was always the heart of any home, and with the cook stove always hot and the whole room smelling of good things, it made Ariadne feel less tense.  
>"Who's this?" Sophie asked. The large woman maneuvered past her prep work to see the child fully.<br>"A visitor has dropped by." Ariadne said as calmly as she could. "Madam has asked the child be given something to eat before bedtime."

She noticed the girl wore a very displeased scowl, even at the prospect of getting food.  
>"Who's come by at this hour and in this weather? It wasn't announced." Sophie said.<p>

Ariadne wasn't in the mood for a scolding.

"I didn't ask." She said with a sigh. "Can we have something hot? The child is very cold."

"Very well, would oatmeal be alright? You've caught me at a bad time for making a large meal." Sophie said.

Ariadne looked down at her charge and waited for a response.

The little girl, Everleigh, hung her head and looked at her shoes.

"Oatmeal will be fine." Ariadne answered for her.

"The silent type." Sophie mused. "I like that in children."

~ "Mother." Arthur said when the older woman's cold, angry eyes refused to soften.  
>"Silence." Mrs. Willows hissed.<p>

The ladies maid had just left them and mother and son were staring at each other. Their glares speaking volumes.  
>"You vanish off the face of the earth for six years, galavanting all over the world and when you come home at last, it's to disgrace this family?" she said.<br>"Mother it's not like that." Arthur said quickly. She was being irrational.

"Well, pray, tell me what it's like, Arthur." Mrs. Willows snapped. "Are you married? I don't see my lovely daughter in law here?"

Arthur knew it was coming, but said nothing. He hung his head and looked at his shoes.

"Just as I thought." Mrs. Willows hissed. "You could have at least lied to me and said you were a widower, but you're never one for sparing my feelings. You've a child out of wedlock, Arthur!"

Her voice was an angry whisper.  
>"I only just found out myself, mother." He explained.<p>

"What do you mean? You haven't been living in sin with some harlot? How do you even know it's yours, Arthur?"

He felt anger prick him at the accusation.  
>"Everleigh is mine." He said darkly. "She has a birth certificate with my name on it."<p>

"The girl probably lied!" Mrs. Willows said. She looked ready to cry. "She found herself in trouble and decided to put a wealthy man's name on the records to make him pay for it. We must call the police. This is a crime."

"Mother." Arthur said calmly.  
>"You shouldn't have to take on someone else's responsibility, Arthur. We can deny she's yours."<p>

"If I deny her, she goes right back to the orphanage where I found her." Arthur snapped.

Mrs. Willows put a hand to her chest as though she had been slapped.

~ In the cozy sitting room, Arthur explained everything to the very last person he wanted to explain everything to.  
>"Her name was Charlotte. We met at a party in London. We got along very well." He explained. His eyes going back to his shoes. He could feel his mother's critical gaze over him.<p>

"I'm sure you did." She snapped.  
>"She never told me she fell pregnant. I was told she went away with friends to stay in France. She didn't leave me a note, or any means to contact her. I would have married her if I had known she was pregnant, Mother."<p>

"Stop saying that word!" She hissed. "It's vulgar."

Arthur rolled his eyes.

"If I had known she was… expecting, I would have proposed. I cared about her, I really did. It wasn't just a summer fling, I would have married her and brought her home. I didn't know about Everleigh until a few months ago." He explained sheepishly.

"You ran into the girl again?" Mrs. Willows accused.

"Yes. She was touring Greece with her husband and their new baby." He explained sadly. "It was pure coincidence that we saw each other. She looked so different. In a private moment away from her husband, she told me we had a daughter. That her parents sent her away to an unwed mother's home in the country to have the baby. She was forced to leave the girl there."

Mrs. Willows looked angry.  
>"It's her own fault. Giving herself to a random man like she did." The old woman said hatefully.<p>

It was Arthur's turn to be angry.

"It wasn't just her fault." He said darkly.

Mrs. Willows shook her head. She couldn't speak just now.

"She gave me the information on the orphanage. Her husband didn't know about our relationship or the other child. She was forbidden to ever speak of it again." He explained quickly. "I went back to England as fast as I could, found the orphanage and…"

He felt his chest tighten at the memory of that awful place. It was a hellish place to grow up. Children were overcrowded and running around without adequate clothes for winter. Their bodies too thin and the whole building reeking of wet dippers and dirty bodies.

He found Everleigh right away. She was sitting by the window with a miserable looking rag doll on her lap. Her sour little face was his own. Her dark eyes looked at him distrustfully.

He had demanded to see the administrator and confirm that this was the right child. The stuffy old man, not used to being ordered around, complied fearfully.

Arthur was used to giving and taking orders. His travels had given him a military career and with it, advancement to officer before then.

Arthur had, very harshly berated the man for keeping the great mass of children in such dire straits. It was a wonder the girl hadn't died of typhoid by now. She had no shoes and the rooms all had the odor of a dirty lavatory.

"My name is Arthur Willows and I'm taking my daughter out of here tonight he said curtly. "There will be no arguments." He listed the horrid conditions, and all but barked at a frighted nurse to collect the little girl.

"Sir, you can't just say you're the child's father." The administrator fumbled. "We can't give out a girl to a strange American just because he says he is a relation."

"Go check her birth certificate." Arthur snarled. "It will have my name and Miss. Charlotte Lewis as the parents. Or, we can allow the sheriffs office handle this. I would love to tell them all about how you run things here. It will make an excellent story for the papers."

The little man, a public servant, had no interest in doing battle with this angry young man. Arthur knew his well tailored clothing, his stern expression and general hostile demeanor, meant he could get his way in most things.

The little girl, Everleigh it said on her birth certificate which Arthur quickly signed his name to, was brought to him. Her clothing too small and she was in need of a bath. He didn't care at this point. He was far too angry with the world and wanted her out of this place.

~ He and Everleigh took a cab back to London, where nervously, he made the girl take a bath on her own.

It was then he realized, he may had bitten off more than he could chew. He had no idea how to care for a child. Much less a girl who didn't know him.

He listened outside the bathroom door for sounds she might have accidentally drowned herself. He asked if she was alright, if she needed anything. Yes and no answers were all he got from her.

She seemed remarkable self sufficient. She bathed herself and even dressed herself in one of his old shirts to sleep in.

"I'll hire you a nurse in the morning." He promised. "You won't be going back to the place."

Everleigh seemed indifferent to the idea of him verses the orphanage. She said nothing, not a thank you or her prayers. She rolled over in her little bed and went to sleep.

~ For whatever reason, Arthur had trouble finding a nurse for the girl. It seemed childcare was a woman's place and agencies refused to send a nanny to a single man in a hotel room. One woman even told him he was a rouge.

Arthur lacked the imagination as to what those women thought he was up to, so he resigned himself to caring for Everleigh on his own.

It was easy enough to buy her clothes. He was careful with clothing and she had a wardrobe full of nice dresses in just a few hours. He bought her a new doll, the finest he could find and she didn't even seem to care.

He knew he would have to secure them a home soon and enroll her in school. Was she even old enough for school?

Only a few days after her rescue, Everleigh came down with a fever that scared him. She was hot and listless and refused to eat. He had a doctor called in and stayed by her bed for days until the crisis passed.

The child spoke even less when she recovered.

Arthur couldn't take care of the child, nor could he put her back in an orphanage. Just the memory of that place gave him nightmares. He had no other choice but to go back home. Mother would know what to do with the little girl. Mother was strong and capable in all things.

He booked passage on a ship and as soon as possible, he headed home with the girl in tow.

He briefly thought about writing to Charlotte. She had seemed to care about what became of their baby. She had told him the newborn was to be adopted and had believed it. Arthur wasn't sure why Everleigh was still at the orphanage instead of with a family.

At any rate, Charlotte seemed happy with her new baby and husband. Perhaps she was happier with the lie that their child was happy to.

~ As for the orphanage, Arthur's rage didn't end with just saving his daughter from that place. He wrote to all the papers and even a member of parliament about how, in America, an orphanage would never be run so poorly. He wasn't even sure how an orphanage would look in his home country, but knew the civic pride of the people in London would be wounded at such a place.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

~ Everleigh was amenable to a warm bath and having her now freshly washed hair rolled up in rags to create curls.

"Whoever was fixing your hair before wasn't doing you any favors." Ariadne mused while trying to untangle a nasty snarl of hair.

Everleigh only winced and hugged her knees to her body.

"Almost done." Ariadne assured her. "Then our hair will be nice again."

"Ouch!" the girl cried out at the deeply embedded tangle of hair.

Ariadne felt bad for hurting the girl, but it was a sorry sight indeed to have a rats nest on her head.

~ When it was all over, Everleigh went to the bed without complaint.

"Don't you want your doll tonight?" Ariadne asked holding up the expensive doll with real, untangled, hair for the child to hold.

Everleigh looked away from the doll and shook her head.  
>"Alright." Ariadne said. "I'll put out the light so you can sleep."<p>

"When can I go home?" the child asked in a small, worried voice.

Ariadne turned in surprise at the question.  
>"Oh. I'm not sure what's going to happen." She said honestly. "I'm sure Mr. Willows will make sure you're taken care of."<p>

~ It only occurred to Ariadne later that the girl must be missing her mother terribly and that it was cruel for Arthur Willows to take the child away from her.

Downstairs, Arthur and Mrs. Willows were whispering to one another. That angry scowl was still on his face. As though he were slightly annoyed with the world as a whole.

"Mrs. Willows, I've put the girl to bed and I'll be leaving now." Ariadne told her employer and ignored Arthur completely.

"Oh, dear, Ariadne." Mrs. Willows said fitfully. "Can I ask you to stay the night? Maybe keep the girl company? It's raining so badly just now and I think Jeffery had gone to bed already with his leg pains."

The thought of not seeing Wesley made Ariadne jump. She had never spent a night apart from her baby since he was born.

"No, Madam." She told her. "I need to go home."

"Mother's right Miss…" Arthur said. Searching for a last name he didn't know and probably didn't care to know.  
>"It's Stevens, Mr. Willows." She told him curtly.<p>

Arthur rolled his eyes at her common sounding name.

"You shouldn't try and walk home in this weather." He said. "I doubt any cabs will be out."

"I have work at home that needs to be done." Ariadne said to the older woman and ignored him again.

"I can drive you." Arthur announced.

Ariadne felt a lightning bolt of fear jolt her body.

"No!" She called out a little too loudly. "No. I can walk home."  
>"Not in this weather, surely." Mrs. Willows told her.<p>

"I can take you home in the carriage." Arthur said again. The way he said it, was almost like she had no choice in the matter.

Ariadne stood a little straiter and looked him in the eye.

"I said no." she told him as calmly as she could.

~ The rain soon had her soaked, even with trying to rush home. The streets were hazy with heavy rain and no a soul was out in this miserable weather.

'_Why didn't I just let him take me home?_' she thought to herself. An answer came back into her brain just as quickly.

_'__Because men like that can't be trusted. You trusted one once, didn't you? Now look what happened. You lost your place at a nice home and have a baby at home with no father.'_

She shook her head.

_'__Yes, but better no father than his real father.'_ She decided.

_'__You know you can't trust that man. Look what he's done already. He didn't speak to his own parents for years and has taken his daughter away from her poor mother.'_

She felt slightly afraid at the idea of a child being taken away from it's mother just because the father had money and the mother was poor and unmarried. What if Wesley were taken away? What if the Dawson family showed up on her door and took Wesley away just as that poor little girl was taken away?

She shook head, trying to clear away that bad thought and decided to stop arguing with herself. It was raining too hard and she needed to hurry home.

~ Back in the cozy apartment, Ariadne changed out of her wet clothes and found Wesley crawling over the pink rung where all the babies of the family learned to crawl.

"How are you, dearest?" she smiled when her baby lifted his head up to see her.

"How was work at the old lady's house?" Annabella asked.

"Fine till their long lost son showed up with a daughter Mrs. Willows didn't even know about." Ariadne told her.

"What? He got married and didn't even tell the old woman?" Annabelle laughed.

"I didn't see any wife with him, just the daughter. It was a shock to the poor lady, I can tell you." Ariadne said sadly. Mrs, Willows had been kind to her and she didn't want the woman to suffer because of the son.

"You mean and little indiscretion?" Annabelle laughed. "Well, good to know it's not just the Dawson boys who carry on."

Ariadne felt her face flush hot.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking." Annabelle said sadly.

"He came with the girl and she asked me when she was going home. I wonder where the mother is? Do you think he just took her with him? That's so cruel." Ariadne said. Wesley was pulling on her hair right now. He was hungry and wanted feeding.

"You know more than I do." Annabelle said indifferently.

Ariadne finally voiced the fears that had been rattling around her brain on the walk home.

"Do you think Tom will try to come for Wesley one day?" she asked her sister.

Annabelle shook her head.

"No, he made it clear he doesn't care about either of you."

"He might change his mind." Ariadne said.

"Stop it." Annabelle snapped. "That whole family made their views clear on you and the baby. Tom is no better than a dog. He doesn't care about Wesley and won't be coming to claim him."

~ Arthur didn't like the way that ladies maid, Miss Stevens, had just walked past him, grabbed her coat and marched out the door. He sensed she didn't like him and he wondered what he had done to offend her.

"Why did you hire a ladies maid anyway, mother? It's a needless expense." He asked. His parents were always so frugal with money. They never hired any more staff than was needed to run a home.

A ladies maid, valet or even a nanny were not needed in this house.

"That's my business, Arthur." She told him bluntly. "It's not for you to worry about."

"I suppose she can look after Everleigh until I find a suitable nanny." Arthur mused.

"She will not be care taking that child, Arthur. The girl must be sent away at once." Mrs. Willows told her son.

Arthur looked back at his mother.

"Sent away? She's barely four years old. She just got here." He told her.  
>"We have relatives in Chicago. Your cousin Richard and his wife already have two boys. I'm sure with the right amount of money they will be willing to take her." Mrs. Willows said quickly.<br>"Mother, Everleigh is staying here. This is her home." Arthur said.

"This is not here home, Arthur. She is your illegitimate child. What were you thinking bringing her here and making a disgrace of the family?" she demanded.  
>"How foolish of me to think this was a family." Arthur said darkly. "I won't send her away, mother. She's had it too hard as it is. She's going to stay here and everyone will know she's my daughter."<p>

"Arthur, you're not even married!" His mother spat.  
>"That doesn't matter." Arthur told her. "I've been away for years, make up any story you like. Say my wife died or something."<p>

"And what if the girl's mother decides she wants her back?" Mrs. Willows asked.

Arthur paused and thought of Charlotte. His former lover had seemed concerned and even worried for the daughter she was forced to abandon. She had practically begged him to find the little girl.

He closed his eyes and willed the idea of Charlotte away. He didn't love her anymore. Their love affair was always doomed.

"She's not coming back for the girl, mother. She's married and had a new baby of her own. It was all done in secret." Arthur said.  
>"And in secret is where it should have remained!" Mrs. Willows said.<p>

Arthur shook his head. He was too tired of hearing about his wrongs. No matter what he did right for the rest of his life, he would always be in the wrong because of Everleigh. Her mere existence was a crime enough to forever bring him shame.

He was about to leave his mother when he spotted a small figure in a long night dress standing at the tops of the stairs.

"Everleigh?" he asked. His young daughter looked a little silly with her head full of rags twisted and tied into her hair.

She said nothing. Her thin, pale face only staring back at him from the top of the stairs. He hoped she hadn't heard his mother complaining. Or at least, hoped she wouldn't understand the unforgivable state of her existence.

"What are you doing up, Everleigh?" he asked striding up the stairs and stopping so they were eye to eye.  
>"The lady left me." She whispered. "It's dark in that room and I'm alone."<p>

Arthur nodded.  
>"Yes, it's to be your very own room, darling." He said gently. "It's just because you're not used to it yet."<p>

He picked up her small body and took her back to the guest room.

"What are all those things in your hair?" he asked. She looked like she was wearing a crown of scrap rags on her head.

Everleigh put a hand to her head.

"Curls." She explained.

"Did the lady put them in?" he asked as he lowed her back into bed and coved her up.

She nodded.

"She said you did a bad job with my hair before." The girl told him.

Arthur felt his brows rise up in surprise.

"Did she?" he asked and Everleigh nodded.

"Well, you'll see her tomorrow and we can see how well your hair comes out." He told her.

He leaned over to kiss her goodnight. A thing his father always did with the boys when they were young, but Everleigh rolled away from him and hid her face.

"Good night, Everleigh." He said feeling rejected.

"Good night, Sir." She said.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it's been so long since I updated. That's depression for you. **

5.

~ Arthur woke up and, for a moment, forgot where he was. He forgot that he had a daughter and that he was back at his parents home.

A weight pressed uncomfortably on his chest at the idea that he had a child to care for now. That his mother was angry and disappointed in him, and he hadn't seen his father at all yet.

His father was a kind person, and Arthur doubted he would be too angry about Everleigh. In this family, it was always his mother who laid out the guilt.

Arthur's boyhood room had not changed since he left home so many years ago. His mother let the maid in to clean and dust, but he knew the curtains were promptly closed and shut off after. He wondered if his brother's rooms had been turned into shrines like this.

He went to his closet to find the traveling trunks were there. His war weary clothing was packed neatly away and needed a good airing.

In the darker reaches of his closet he spotted his old toys. Large wooden and cast iron toy boats, trains and metal army men. He briefly thought about giving them to Everleigh, but she was a girl, and wouldn't have much intreats in old toys that belonged to a boy.

In fact, Everleigh seemed to have no interest in toys at all. She didn't pay much attention to the doll he had given her. Maybe they would go to a shop and find something she would like. A nice bear or a tea set.

Anything to crack the cold enigma that was Everleigh.

~ The house hummed with activity that morning. That ladies maid, that small and fair faced Miss Stevens was with his mother in the sitting room. The young woman taking orders for errands around town.  
>"We'll have to go to my cold storage for the furs. There's a sable muff I want to ware this season. After that, I want to go to the library and we can select something nice for the rest of week."<p>

Arthur ignored them and instead helped himself to the pot of coffee that Jenny had just put out on the little sideboard table. The maid, a loud country girl, gave him a dirty look before turning away.

Clearly, the gossip about his return and his illicit daughter had made the rounds among the staff.

"Arthur, have you just woken up?" Mrs. Willows asked. "Ariadne and I have been busy for hours. We've drafted a telegram to your cousin about the girl. They live on a nice little farm. Picture perfect for a child."

"What?" Arthur said turning to face his mother. "Mother, we talked about this."

"And you've had time to see reason." Mrs. Willows said obstinately. "You must understand, you're a single man. You cannot raise a child alone."

"Mr. Richards did it. He raised five." Arthur snapped.  
>"He had a governess." Mrs. Willows snapped.<p>

Arthur stepped aside as the new ladies maid, her name sounding odd in his head, moved away from Mrs. Willows and out of the conversation.

"Mother, Everleigh is staying with me. This is her home now." He said cooly.

His mother opened her mouth.

"I don't care about a scandal, Mother." He snapped.

Arthur sipped his coffee and tried to ignore the daggers his mother was staring at him.

~ Ariadne had excused herself to the kitchen. The natural safe haven for all servants when they needed to vanish from sight.

She kept close to the door, however, and listened in. Cook wasn't there this morning and Jenny has gone upstairs to start on washing the clothes of their new guests.

Mrs. Willows was nothing but kind to her, but seemed to have contempt for her son and this new foundling child of his.

Everleigh seemed not to care about the argument going on in the sitting room. Ariadne looked at the small girl sitting quietly at the kitchen work table. She had a sour look on her thin, pale face. Her dark little eyes distrusting of everything.

That morning, when Ariadne arrived at work, she had gone to the guest room to call the child to get dressed and come downstairs. No one had told her to do this, as a mother, Ariadne felt sorry for the girl and wanted to ensure she had made it through the night.

At first, she thought the guest room to be empty. The bedding was stripped of and the girl was nowhere to be seen. Ariadne was about to start searching the rest of the house when she saw a small, pink foot sticking out from under the bed.

She knelt down to spy Everleigh asleep in a little nest of blankets and pillows she had made under the large bed.

The child had, for some unknown reason, had also taken rocks and broken pencils with her in the nest under the bed and laid them around her like some kind of protective spell.

Ariadne felt her heart hurt a little at the sight of the girl and brushed a hand over the dark hair of the child's sleeping face. Everleigh had woken then and cringed slightly.

"It's alright." Ariadne had whispered. "No one is mad. Get dressed and come down for something nice to eat. You can have as much honey as you want."

~ Everleigh still seemed distrustful of everything in her new world. Ariadne had noticed she had dressed as though she were going outside in the cold. Her outerwear coat was neatly buttoned and she seemed perfectly comfortable with wearing it all day.

"I don't think you have to wear that indoors, miss." Ariadne told the girl. "Your father probably want's you to rest today after so much traveling. I was going to the library today with your grandmother, if you like, I can bring you a book back."

She looked at the girl hopefully.

"Can you read at all? Do you know your letters?" she asked.

The girl looked down at the pot of honey next to her oatmeal. The jar had fascinated her because it was in the shape of a bee hive with little bees sculpted on it.

"Did you go to school?" Ariadne asked hopefully.

The girl's eyes grew wide and she looked back at Ariadne.

"No reason to get upset. Once you're in school, you'll learn your letters-" Ariadne started to say.

"She's going to have a tutor to bring her up to speed." A deep voice practically boomed into the safe enclosure of the kitchen. "Then, we shall see about a private school, Miss Stevens."

Ariadne turned to see Arthur Willows had come into the room. His entrance was so quite that she hadn't heard him and had to think about all she had said that he no doubt over heard.

"I… I was just asking her if she…" Ariadne fumbled. "She might like some nice picture books." She said at last.

"Those will be things I can acquire for her." Arthur said sharply. "I think mother is waiting for you."

"Yes, sir." She said and gave a little curtsey before excusing herself.

She chanced a look back at the interloper and saw his face was cold as he looked over Everleigh. The child sitting still as though she were made of stone herself.  
>"Miss. Stevens." he said sharply.<br>"Yes, Sir?" she said quickly. "I'll be advertising for a governess to come and look after the girl today. Until then, please remember that you are mother's maid and not the girl's nanny. Is that clear?" he asked.

"Very clear, sir." she said.

She saw his eyes shift away from the child for a moment and rest on her. Ariadne tumbled slightly and looked at her shoes.

"I appreciate your concern for my daughter, Miss. Stevens, but she is my responsibility. I can take care of her." He said with a surprising gentleness.

She looked up at him. His face was softer but his eyes were as sharp as ever.

"As you wish, sir." She told him.

~ It was with relief that Ariadne and Mrs. Willows left the house that day and ran a series of distracting errands. Mrs. Willows didn't seem to want a ladies maid as much as she needed a companion.

The went dress shopping, had lunch at a cafe Ariadne could have never afforded. They went to the library and Ariadne obtained her very own library card under Mrs. Willows reference.

She hesitated in the children's section. She wanted to get the girl a nice picture book, but shivered when she remembered Arthur's warning. So, instead, she took out a nice romance for herself and a lovely little story about a boy she could read to Wesley.

Her baby was too young to understand the story, but she would often talk to him and he would listen non the less.

~ "Who is the child's book for, dear?" Mrs. Willows asked when they were leaving.

"Oh, my sister's children." Ariadne told her. Lies coming easily when she had to cover for her son. "I thought I might read to them."

"How nice." Mrs. Willows smiled. "You should know I've told Arthur you're not to be the child's nanny or maid. That you don't work for him at all. I know you helped the girl this morning out of a kindness, but he is to hire a proper person for the girl from now on."

Ariadne wanted to argue with the woman, but shut her mouth. So it hadn't been Arthur just being wretched that morning. His mother had told him to separate Ariadne from the girl.

~ Mrs. Willows' carriage dropped Ariadne off at home on their way back. The older woman wanted to see her again tomorrow and Ariadne was quick to rush upstairs where there was good cooking, happy children and her baby boy waiting for her to read to him.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

~ Wesley was always a good baby.

From the moment he was born in the confined attic bedroom of the grand Dawson house, Wesley had been a good baby. He seemed to have sensed he wouldn't be wanted by his father and that his very existence was a source of ruin for his mother. But Ariadne fell instantly in love with the sticky mass of baby as soon as her fellow maid put him into her arms.

When she saw her son, her own precious babe, she instantly forgot and forgave his father for what he had done to her. What he had done to both of them.

"Now, Ariadne." The maid who delivered her child whispered. "You have to keep him quite. If Mrs. Dawson should hear."

"I don't care." Ariadne snapped. "I'll tell them everything. I'll go to the papers and tell them exactly what kind of man their son is."

"No one will believe a disgraced girl like you. You should have told us you were in a family way. We all thought you were just gaining a bit of weight. Grief after your mother died. We had no idea you were so far along."

"I didn't tell anyone." Ariadne snapped. "I didn't want **him** getting any ideas about what was his. This is my child. I didn't ask for him, but he's mine."

The maid looked worriedly at the new mother.  
>"What did Mr. Dawson do to you?" she breathed.<p>

~ Wesley cooed in his mothers arms as she stared reading to him. He was at that wonderful age now where he wasn't nearly so delicate and small. He kicked and waved his arms about and everything to him was amazing.

He looked up at his mother as she read to him in soothing tones. Her fingers finding his soft, baby hair and twirling it lightly. Her son focused on her voice alone and gave her a smile when she peeped back at him.

She wondered if Everleigh ever had anyone care for her the way she cared for Wesley. To Ariadne, her baby wasn't a sin born from a crime, but a true blessing. In him, she didn't see any hope of marriage vanish or a life subject to ridicule for having a baby outside of marriage. What was she to do? Marry Wesley's father? Such a thing was too horrible to think about.

No, Mr. Dawson was better off never knowing he had ever fathered a child with the poor maid he had abused so badly one night.

Ariadne closed her book, kissed her son good night, and went to bed herself.

~ Arthur's experience with Everleigh that afternoon wasn't nearly so cozy.

As soon as that ladies maid, that odd little Miss Stevens, had left, the girl had vanished. Almost as if the walls had swallowed her whole.

His mother had given him a stern lecture that Miss Stevens was her maid and in no way was she to play nanny to the girl.

Arthur looked for Everleigh for a while before giving up and deciding he had no use for playing games with a girl who most likely didn't want to be found by him anyway.

"Jenny." he called through the house. The large country girl appeared in the hallway upstairs and looked carefully down at him.

He had just finished writing out an advertisement for a governess on his mother's pink stationary.

"Yes, sir?" the country maid asked.

"You're to stop what you're doing and take this to the newspaper. Have the bill sent to the house and tell them we want it in tomorrows paper. Understand?" he told her easily.

"Sir, Missus wants me to do the washing." she stammered.

"Mother wants this attended to first. Is that clear?" Arthur told her.  
>"Yes, sir." Jenny said. Although she looked mutinous.<p>

"Where is my father?" he asked the maid before she left him.  
>Jenny looked worried.<br>"Upstairs, sir. But he's not to be disturbed." she said quickly.  
>Arthur ignored her and trapped upstairs. He peeped into Everleigh's little room and saw her bedding was taken off but the child was nowhere to be seen.<p>

There was only his parent's room that was shut at the moment and Arthur had never remembered coming into his parents bedroom before. As a boy or a man.

He knocked lightly and heard his father's voice.

"Come in?" he said. His voice that of a question and less of an answer.

Arthur opened the door to see his father, a sweet faced balding man sitting fully dressed in his relaxing chair. The newspaper and some puzzle books on the table next to him.

"Hello." his father said gently. He smiled at seeing Arthur and waved at him to come in.

"Dad." Arthur breathed in relief. "I'm glad to see you."

"Hello." his father said again. His voice bright and cheerful. "I"m Richard."

Arthur stopped and looked at his father in bemusement.

"Dad, are you alright?" he asked.  
>"Of course." his father said. "Now, who are you again?"<p>

"I'm…" Arthur said and bit his bottom lip. "I'm Arthur. I'm your son."

"Oh!" said Richard Willows. "Right. Of course."

The older man laughed at himself and tried to look like he was only slightly confused. As if forgetting his youngest child was an easy thing to do. Like misplacing your glasses or a book.

"It's alright, dad. I've been away a long time." Arthur sighed.

He sat down next to his father and looked him over sadly.

"I've decided to come back home." said Arthur.

"Oh?" Richard said. "That's nice."

The old man when back to his puzzle book and scowled over one of the crosswords.

"I was all over the world, dad." Arthur said.

He felt his heart break a little as his father didn't seem to understand him at all. Confusion was plain in the poor gentleman's face.

"Dad, I have a daughter." Arthur said at last. "Her name's Everleigh. You would like her, she's beautiful and smart."  
>"We always wanted a daughter." Richard said brightly.<p>

"She's going to live with us to." Arthur told him.

Richard nodded but didn't seem to hear.  
>"That's nice." The old man said with a distant smile.<p>

~ Under the large bed of her grandparents, Everleigh lay on her belly. She had been hiding here since the nice lady who said she might have some honey left. She wasn't at all cold, but kept her coat on and buttoned tightly. Her rock collection, the ones she liked and that had the natural shape of elephants and tigers were around her and she had been playing jungle when that angry man walked in and broke the peaceful silence.

He always seemed angry with everyone all the time. He was inpatient and wanted things done. He never yelled at her and that made her distrust him. It was like he was two different people. One who bought her nice food and pretty clothes and let her draw with his pencils. Then the other one who told that nice lady with the big eyes and dark hair not to take care of her.

Everleigh had liked that lady. She talked about school and the girl had to fight the urge to ask to go home with her. She imagined that nice lady had a warm little cottage and fire. And she would sleep in the same bed with her and they would be happy.

Instead, Everleigh was laying under a large bed and listening to the angry man talk to the sweet old man.

The sweet old man hadn't paid her much attention when she wandered in here after the old lady left. He smiled at her and kept writing in his book. Everleigh had looked around the room and he just ignored her. He didn't even say a word to the angry man about her.

She wondered if the angry man was still looking for her. Maybe he had given up and she would go back to the orphanage. She didn't like the idea of going back there. The place was always too cold and there was never enough to eat. But, no one minded her much and they left her alone. She could play with her rocks and build little houses out of sticks all day so long as she kept out of the way.

The angry man seemed to want to know where she was all the time. He called for her and made a big deal about how much of her was unsuitable. From her hair to her clothes to the rag doll he had thrown away.

He had replaced it with an ugly, thing that felt too heavy in her arms and she was afraid of it. She missed her simple little dolly that smelled like her.

She watched the angry man and the sweet old man's feet as they talked.

"Now I know why mother hired that Miss Stevens to keep her company." the angry man was saying. "It must be hard for her."

"It's hard sometimes." the sweet old man said and Everleigh knew he was smiling.  
>"I'm sorry I wasn't back sooner."<p>

She heard the angry man sigh.

"All I could think about was protecting her. Of getting her out of that horrible place and home. Now that she's here, I don't know what to do with her. I don't know how to be a father. I don't have a wife. Mother want's me to send her away." the angry man said sadly and Everleigh knew he was talking about her again.

"It'll be alright." the sweet old man said.

Everleigh placed her face on the cold wooden floor and looked at her rock that was shaped like a bird.

She wished she wasn't talked about so much. She felt like something terribly bad since this man had taken her away from home. True, he wasn't cruel to her, but she felt like she was in a strange land with him. She closed her eyes and thought of the honey she had for breakfast. How the lady had talked about school.

Everleigh knew some of her letters and wanted to read. She felt she could unlock some kind of secret world if she knew this. She liked the whole idea of going to school with other children to. She missed being around the mobs of other kids.

Their shouts and cries had become a comforting white noise around her. Now, her world was far too quite.

**Congratulations****to JGL on ****tiring****the knot. I'm very happy he married such an amazing girl. **


	7. Chapter 7

7.

~ The next few days could hardly be called work for Ariadne. She had never had such an easy life before. Her duties consisted of running little errands with Mrs. Willows, of helping her clean out closets and going through old trunks.

Mrs. Willows liked having her around for conversation. She wanted someone to listen and respond to her. She wanted someone to go to lunch with and someone to just keep her company.

Ariadne didn't mind. Mrs. Willows was pleasant to her and the money was all right. At the end of the week, she was paid what she had made slaving for the Dawson family.

At the Willows house, she wasn't required to clean and do the hundred other jobs she had done before. Jenny did most of the cleaning and what washing they could, was sent out to make things run smoother.

On Wednesday, a team of stout maids came in and gave the house a good cleaning. It was then that Mrs. Willows took her husband to some unknown place for the day and left Ariadne alone in the house to ensure the maids kept busy.

Mrs. Willows didn't want to imply that they would steal from her, but Ariadne had worked in service long enough to know that the rich never trusted anyone.

The maids were a group of four Irish girls with thick accents and hair hastily tied away from their faces. They were good cleaners and worked quickly. All of them roaming each room in little packs of sweeping and dusting.

Ariadne made sure to always walk into a room unexpectedly that they were cleaning. She disliked the notion of hovering over them, but didn't want to be responsible if something broke. Mrs Willows was go good to her, she wanted to protect her things.

"Mother still has the help watched I see." Grumbled a deep voice from behind her.

Ariadne was peeping in at the maids dusting and sweeping the front parlor and hadn't heard Arthur creep up behind her in the narrow hallway.

She jumped and felt her pulse quicken.

"You scared me." she hissed.

"Apologies." he nodded and peered through the crack in the door. "Sorry she makes you do this. She's locked up the good silver and the jewelry, don't worry about anything else."

"I'm not worried." Ariadne said easily. Her voice was shaking slightly. "I was told to keep an eye on the ladies cleaning today and I intend to do as I am told."

She caught Arthur giving her a rare smile.

"You haven't seen Everleigh, have you?" he asked after a moment. "She vanished right after cook made her breakfast and I can't find her. She does this everyday."

Ariadne wanted to tell him to look under the beds, but had to bite her tongue.

"You told me not to concern myself with the girl, sir." she said instead.  
>"I only ask, Miss Stevens, because I have some interviews to conduct today for a nanny to look after her. I would like Everleigh to be present in case she responds favorably to anyone." he said lightly. His voice indicated he was not at all angry at her.<p>

"Very nice of you." she said and turned back to the maids.

"I thought so to." He agreed.

It occurred to her slowly that he was still standing behind her. Both of them peering out at the hard working Irish girls.  
>"Tell me about the last house you worked at. Did you like it there?" he asked.<p>

She froze at the question.  
>"The Dawson's?" she asked in a chocked voice.<br>"Yes, I know their sons. Tom Dawson and I want to school together." Arthur said.

Ariadne felt the cold creep into her heart. As though a knife were plunged into her back.

She wanted to say something, but her jaw refused to move.

"I saw Tom a few months ago in fact. He was traveling." Arthur mused darkly.

"Sir, It's not fitting for me to talk about my former employer." She hissed.

"I see." Arthur said with a smile. "Discretion. Very correct of you."

"You might find Everleigh under one of the beds." she whispered. She felt suddenly very hot in the narrow hallway with Arthur Willows.

He was no better than Tom Dawson. He was spoiled, arrogant and used to taking what was his. She had to keep away from him.

"Why would she hid under the bed?" Arthur asked. His voice low.

She stiffened and moved away from him. She could feel him standing too close to her and didn't like it. It was how things started with Tom.

"I don't know. I found her under the bed after her first night here." she said and refused to look at him.

"Did she tell you why?" Arthur asked.

"I didn't ask, sir." Ariadne said simply. She shouldn't have added on, but the memory of the girl sleeping under the bed like that bothered her as a mother. "But, she had some rocks and pencils around her."

She heard Arthur sigh but didn't turn around.  
>"She loves her rocks." he said sadly. Buttons to. Buttons, pencils, ribbons. She won't play with the tea set I got her or the bear. She insists on keeping the most useless of objects."<p>

Ariadne felt herself smile.  
>"It's nothing to worry about. My sister's children make toys out of the strangest things." she whispered. "When I was little and working as an under maid, we used to pretend a bag of potatoes was a baby. We would even dress it up."<p>

She flushed at the memory.  
>"I'd hate to see that baby." Arthur mused and she felt herself smile.<p>

She was about to turn around when she heard a crash in the sitting room.

Her heart raced in her chest and she pushed through the doors to see that one of the maids had broken and blue and white vase on the floor. It's beautifully painted patterns a wreck now of broken glass.  
>"I'm so sorry, miss!" Stammered the teenager. "It just fell!"<p>

"Clumsy!" Ariadne snapped. She would no doubt get the blame for this and be fired from the best job she had ever had.

"Ladies, clean it up." Arthur said calmly. "Don't worry about it." he said to Ariadne.

"Oh, no!" Ariadne breathed.

"Don't worry. I'll tell mother I did it." he said.

"What?" Ariadne laughed.  
>"I don't want you getting into any trouble." he told her.<p>

"No, I should have been watching." Ariadne argued.

"Miss Stevens, Mother is used to my being reckless in her house. She won't think anything of it." he said.  
>"Sir-"<p>

"Not another word." He snapped.

~ Ariadne worried over the broken vase long after the girls were paid and left for the day. Arthur had asked her to find Everleigh and send her down to meet the ladies he was interviewing to be her nanny.

"I know it's not in your job description, Miss Stevens." he said quickly. "But you seem to know where she hides."

Ariadne had no difficulty at all in finding the girl. There was a hallow buffet table on the upstairs landing with a false front. It was a perfect spot for any child to hide. Indeed, that was where Ariadne found Everleigh, crouched with an old newspaper and cutting it into paper dolls. Her hands covered in ink.

"Your father wants you to come and meet some ladies who are you to take care of you." Ariadne said gently.

Everleigh looked back at her with wide, distrustful eyes.

"There's no reason to be afraid. You don't have to talk to them if you don't want to." she told the girl.

~ A line of women paraded through the parlor that afternoon. Arthur found most of them unpleasant and too abrasive.

"I don't clean, or cook." one woman said. She was a large, ham fisted woman with ill fitting clothes. "I don't take any sass from young ones either."

"You're excused." Arthur sighed.

The next few weren't any better. The older women were ill tempered and mean looking. The younger women tried to flirt with Arthur and even tried to woo Everleigh into talking to them.

"I'm not married, sir." one blond woman said shyly. "But someday, if I meet the right man, I would be so happy if we had a girl as sweet as yours."

Arthur felt his face grow warm at the comment. Particularly because that Miss Stevens had walked past the room at that moment and no doubt heard the whole thing.

Finally, he decided on an older woman in her fifties. She had looked after children her whole life and seemed very calm and no nonsense which Arthur liked.  
>"Now it's always been that I've reported to the lady of the house. It's odd the husband is doing the hiring." the Irish woman said.<br>"You'll answer to me when it comes to my… my ward, Miss Nolan." Arthur said uneasily.

"That will be fine, sir. Just so I know what's expected of me. That I'm to care for the child alone, mind you and no one else. I also expect a free hand when it comes to my minding her. I've tended a lot of children, each of them more silly than the last and I know how to deal with the head strong ones."

"Everleigh is very quite." Arthur nodded to her daughter who was sitting uncomfortably in a chair next to him. Her hair brushed out no doubt by that Miss Stevens. Her small hands stained black for some reason.

"Good to know." Miss Nolan nodded. "I was paid seven dollars a week as a live in nanny."

"That will be fine." Arthur agreed. "When can you start?"

"Well, I've it in me to start today if you like, sir." she shrugged.

"Very well. We have the guest room for Everleigh, but I'd like you to share her room. I'll have the maid bring down a spare bed from the attic for you." he said and shook Miss Nolan's hand.

"I hope your girl will be good." Miss Nolan told him briskly.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

~ "Mother, why didn't you tell me about Dad?" Arthur asked over dinner.

His mother looked up in surprise at her son.

"What do you mean, dear?" she asked.

"I mean, what's wrong with him? I've been up to see him everyday now and he doesn't even remember me. He's always introducing himself and then forgetting what we were talking about." Arthur told her.

His mother gave a long sigh and pretended to have great interest in her soup.

"It's just old age, dear. It's why he retired from the office when he did." she told him.

"You keep him shut up in that room all day long." Arthur said coldly. "None of his friends have come by to see him."

"No, we don't want visitors." his mother snapped. "Think of the shame. If people knew your father, my husband, had tuned feeble minded."

"Mother!" Arthur said in alarm. "Dad's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Arthur, we have to protect his dignity. I don't want people to know about his condition. You're not to speak of it again, is that clear?" she said coldly.

Arthur leaned back in his chair. There was no arguing with his mother when she was like this.

"Now, onto more pleasant things. I see you've hired a nanny for the girl." she said crisply.

"The girl." Arthur interrupted. "The girl's name is Everleigh. She's your granddaughter."

His mother glared at him.

"Arthur, I have wrestled with my inner distaste for your actions over the past few years. Your dropping out of school, your foolish travels at our expense. But bringing that waif home with you and demanding I treat it like family is too much." she hissed. Her eyes were wide with slightly repressed rage. For a moment, Arthur thought his mother was going to hit him.  
>"I spoke with our lawyer today." she went on. "I've decided, given your indifference to your family's well being, we don't have to support you anymore."<p>

"My family's well being, mother?" Arthur laughed. "Everleigh **is** my family and I'm trying to support her well being."

His blood felt hot now that his mother had brought money into the argument.

"I don't need your support, either. I have the trust fund dad set up for me. Everleigh and I can easily move out. I came to you because I thought you wanted to meet your grandchild." he told her hurtfully.  
>"She is not my grandchild. You were never married to the girl's mother and you're not even married to anyone." his mother hissed. "It was your trust fund we spoke to our lawyer about. We think that with your disrespect, we should cut you off. Disown you completely."<p>

Arthur was speechless. The idea of disowning him was disastrous for both him and Everleigh. He had never had a real job. He had joined the military and traveled, but his bills were always paid for.

He refused to back down.  
>"If that's what you want, mother." he said quietly. "I can take Everleigh and we can leave."<p>

"I don't want to disown my own child, Arthur. If you were married, things would be different. If you had a wife, then no one would care. You would be out in society and the girl would be legitimate. She could have a life."

"I'm not going to get married just to please you, mother." he said soberly. "I'm trying to take care of my own child here. I thought I was home and that you would welcome us. I'm sorry I was wrong."

~ After dinner, Arthur wanted to go strait to bed. He would visit his friends at the club in the morning and tell them he was looking for work. He still had connections. He wasn't on the street yet.

"And the owl asked the cat why it wanted to find the village." a soft voice came from one of the rooms upstairs. "Humans are not to be trusted."

Arthur looked around for the voice and spied his father's bedroom door open. A warm light streaming out into the dark hallway.

"But the humans are not all bad, said the cat. The nice lady gives me milk." came the soft voice.

Arthur peered into his father's room and saw Everleigh nestled deep in her grandfather's arms. The old man was reading her one of the old children's books that were kept in the house. A look of wonderment was on the old man's face as he seemed to be reading to himself more than to the child.

Everleigh was fast asleep in his arms and looked too perfect to disturb. Her long dark hair free of ribbons and braids and fell freely over her like she was some kind of mermaid.

His father spotted Arthur and waved at him.  
>"Hello." the old man said. "I'm Richard."<p>

"Hello, Arthur said with a weary smile.

The older man nodded to the sleeping girl in his lap.

"Isn't she beautiful?" he asked and gently placed the book he was reading aloud down next to his puzzle books.

"Yes, she is." Arthur whispered.

He smiled at the pair of them. In a family of boys, Everleigh was the first girl.

"She visits me everyday and then hides. I think she thinks she's a fairy. I call her the fairy girl." his father said.

Arthur smiled.

"She is a fairy, dad." he agreed.

"She never smiles, though." his rathe said sadly. "I've been trying to get her to smile, but she won't."

"She will one day, dad." Arthur whispered. "Let me have her. She needs to go to bed."

Everleigh must have been in a deep sleep, because she didn't respond at all to being moved. Arthur hefted her slight weight, still too thin for his liking, into his arms and carried her to the guest room.

"Mr. Willows?" came a surprised voice.

Arthur turned around and saw Miss Stevens walking to him.  
>"Where is Miss Nolan?" he questioned roughly.<br>"Taking a bath I think, it was a lot of work bringing down that bed today." Ariadne told him outside his father's room.

"I found her in there with my father. She shouldn't have been bothering him." Arthur told her as he carried Everleigh to her room.  
>"She's in there everyday. I thought you knew." Ariadne replied and followed him.<p>

"My father isn't… isn't well enough for visitors." Arthur tried to explain. "He has…"

"Your mother told me." Ariadne said quickly. "I only let her stay there because he seemed so happy to have company."

"Mother told you about my dad?" Arthur questioned.

Ariadne opened the door to the guest room and Arthur saw it had indeed been made ready for the nanny to stay there with Everleigh.  
>"Yes, she's always talking about him. How he started forgetting things. It's hard on her." Ariadne whispered.<p>

Arthur watched her fold down Everleigh's bed and fish out a night dress from the wardrobe.

He gently placed his daughter on the bed, only to have the child stir awake slightly. Ariadne took no notice and quickly slipped off the girl's shoes and handed them to him.

Dumbfounded, he watched that Miss Steven gently remove the girls everyday dress and slip on the night dress as if she had done this kind of thing a thousand times before.

Everleigh seemed indifferent and, with blurry eyes, allowed herself to be redressed.

Ariadne, her hands gentle but quick, laid the girl back down and covered her up.

She turned around to see him still holding the little girl's shoes.

"Let me have these." she said with mild humor in her voice.

"You're good at that." Arthur said in a whisper.  
>"There are a lot of children where I live." she told him. "Someone always needs attention."<br>"Sounds horrible." he said without thinking.

She smiled.  
>"No, it's all family." she told him.<br>"I thought you weren't married." he said with a pang of disappointment he couldn't understand. That was why she always wanted to go home every day. She had a husband to take care of. Probably children to.  
>"I'm not." she told him. "I live with my sister and her family."<p>

They were leaving the nursery after Ariadne stowed the little shoes away and was convinced Everleigh was asleep.

"Has mother said anything about me? About my daughter? Since she tells you everything, I mean." Arthur said bitterly.

Ariadne was quite for a long time.  
>"She puts on a brave face, sir." she said soothingly. "It's not easy for her sometimes. I think that's why she hired me. She wanted a friend more that a ladies maid."<p>

Arthur nodded.

"Miss Stevens, there is no need for you to go to a crowded apartment every night. I'm sure mother would want you to live here." he said.

"Oh, no." Ariadne said quickly. "In fact, I'm running late as it is. I only looked after the girl as a favor to Miss Nolan."

"You might be more comfortable living here." Arthur argued.  
>"No, I like living with my sister." Ariadne snapped.<p>

Arthur moved away from the small woman with her large eyes.

"Very well." he said simply. "Let me see you home."

"No, sir." she said quickly.

"It's dark outside."

"I can walk." she told him.  
>"It's dangerous." he argued.<br>"Mr. Willows?" came a curious voice and Arthur was pulled away from Miss Stevens by the arrival of the nanny in a frumpy dressing gown.

"Mr. Willows, I'm sorry I was in the bath. Is the girl alright?" she asked.

"She's fine, Miss Nolan, already in bed and asleep. No worries." Arthur assured her.

He wanted to credit Miss Steven for putting the girl to bed but when he looked, found she had slipped away from him and was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

~ Ariadne didn't like to walk home so late in the evening, but the idea of not see Wesley for even one night was unthinkable. She had never missed anyone as much as she missed her baby during the day.

While she was having fun with Mrs. Willows, she wondered what he was doing and if he thought about her at all. His eyes always lit up when she came through the door each evening and his fat arms would reach for her greedily.

They would eat dinner together, him on her lap, he was already getting too big for her to carry much longer. Then, she would give him his bath, change him into his night clothes and spend the evening with him cuddled in the crook of her arms. His warm little body feeling perfect and smelling like soap was the best way to end any day.

She quickened her pace past the nice neighborhoods where the gas lamps provided a comforting illusion of safety, past the little park where the well to do took their children for play, and past a corner market that would take her directly to her own neighborhood.

"Out a little late, Miss Stevens?" came the call of a local shop owner. "Best get home soon."

"I am." Ariadne called back without looking over her shoulder. It was already becoming cold out and she didn't relish the idea of spending any longer in foul weather than she had to.

She wished she lived in a better neighborhood. There was still some elements of street crime here and no one decent left their homes after dark. The neighborhood we deserted and there was only the small gas light at the end of the block to guide her way.

A few yards ahead, she saw a small street gang of rough looking boys. Some of them not quite teenagers, but all of them were dangerous looking none the less.

"Hey, lady!" one of them called. He was a boy about ten years old. His face and close cropped hair cut gave him the look of a weasel.

"Where you going, lady?" he cat called again.

She ignored them and kept walking.

"Too good to talk to me?" the boy cried out and the other boys, all of them a little older started to follow her.

'_Stay calm_.' she told herself.

The boys were hooting at her now. Wolf whistles they had heard from older brothers designed purely to scare her.

"Where you going?" one of the older boys, a large teenager, pushed her off the sidewalk.

She glared back at them and they laughed. She was too small, and they were too big. Their bodies built almost like that of grown men, but with a childish glee in hurting another person who was small and weaker.

"Leave me alone." she said with a shaky breath.

"What's wrong? You too good to spend time with us?" one of the boys laughed and another boy, about her size, but with a lot of upper body strength pushed her roughly into the arms of his friend.

That boy caught her neatly and pulled her hair, causing her head to snap back.

Ariadne, not used to this kind of treatment, gave out a yelp of fright before kicking back at the boy and freeing herself.  
>"Leave me alone!" she said firmly when she was out of their grasp. "I have a baby at home. I'm trying to get back to him. I don't have money, I'm a mother! I have a baby at home!"<p>

She was almost crying now. Why wouldn't they just go away? She wanted to see Wesley, wanted to hold her son and pray he would never turn out like these hooligans.

"Baby?" one of the boys cackled. "You gonna show us how you go a baby, miss?"

The older boy, the biggest and meanest of the bunch, was licking his lips and glaring down at her as she tried to back away.

Another boy pushed her into the large boys arms and his grip was bone crushingly harsh.

"Let me go!" she screamed and tried to break free of the large boys iron like grip.

Suddenly, without warning, the large boy let out a sickening groan and fell down.

His body relaxed and Ariadne rolled free to see Arthur standing over her. The butt of a revolver in his hand from where he knocked her attacker on the back of the head.

He didn't bother to look down at her, and kept his eyes, now slit into an angry glare, on the rest of the gang.

The boys, unsure now what to do with their leader wounded on the ground, stared at the well dressed man with the revolver now pointed in the air.

"I better not see you back here." he said in a calm, remarkable cold voice.

Ariadne looked up in awe at her savior, and then at the boys.

They were unprepared for the weight of a grown man standing up to them. Much less one that was armed. They didn't move and Arthur, realizing they were calling his bluff discharged his weapon.

Then revolver gave off a loud bang and the smell of gun powder filler Ariadne's nose. Like a pack of unruly dogs, the boys ran off in different directions. All of them, even the biggest one, now stumbling into the dark hiding places from which they came from.

Ariadne, still siting on the cold ground looked up at Arthur. Her employer's son looked angry and he kept his eyes out only for the return of the hooligans.

"Are you alright, Miss Stevens?" he finally breathed out. His voice was collected, but laced with worry,

She couldn't speak. Couldn't say a word. She couldn't seem to move either as he extended his hand to help her up. Her chest felt tight, her breathing was becoming rapid as tears welled up in her eyes.

"It's alright. They're gone." he said and crouched down next to her. His body coming close to hers and making her anxiety even worse.  
>"I'm sorry!" she chocked out before she started to really sob. She couldn't help it, it was like a flood gate. Emotion, naked and real was still coursing through her body. She could have been raped, she could have been killed. Wesley could have been an orphan.<p>

"It's alight. You're safe now." Arthur was whispering before he pulled her up with his strong, yet gentle hands.

She sniffed and tried to compose herself. She gave him a faint nod that she understood she wasn't in danger anymore and to stop this silly crying.  
>"Next time, you'll let our driver take you home, understand?" he ordered. But his voice was kind and soothing.<p>

He was glaring at her in a way that she took to mean he wasn't to be argued with on this point. She gulped and nodded at him. Her brain too muddled to say anything back.

"Let's get you home." he said and clasped her hand in his. His handgun had vanished back into his coat with a practice ease.  
>"You always carry that with you?" she sniffed. Their footsteps matching time on the empty sidewalk.<p>

"I've traveled the world, Miss. Stevens." he said and looked behind them. No one was following them, but he wasn't being to careful. "I wish I could say everywhere I went was pleasant and safe."

She let out a long breath.  
>"Thank you." she said at last.<p>

"Think nothing of it. I was glad I followed you." he said.

"Why did you follow me?" she said with a pitiful moan. It would be a long time before she could ever feel safe on this street again.

"You abandoned our conversation so quickly, and I didn't like the idea of you're walking home by yourself." he said.

She nodded. Her mind unable to understand a word of what he had just said.  
>"I would appreciate it, you said nothing about this to mother. She's got enough to worry about lately. Now, let's get you home to your baby." he said<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

10.

~ Ariadne's heart was pounding so loudly, she was certain Arthur could hear it when they reached her building.

"I only said that…" she breathed. "I only said that, about a baby, so they would leave me alone."

Arthur was looking at her with a steady gaze. As though he could see right through her and disapproved of the person within.

"You screamed you had a baby at home. That you were a mother." he said. His eyes softening.

"I think of my sister's children like my own." she said and her lower lip trembled. She was on the verge of tears agin. She didn't want to cry, but the attack, Arthur's sudden rescue and the revelation of her secret was too much.

"Women don't normally scream out things like that unless they're true." he said in that same soft manner.

She was breathing hard.

"I was… I was only…" she mumbled and forgot how to talk. Tears landed on her cheek and she was trying wipe them away.

"You've never been married?" he asked gently. She shook her head.

"Your mother, she doesn't know." Ariadne said with a sniff.

"I think it's best she never know. We've both seen how she reacts to this kind of thing." Arthur told her calmly.

Ariadne nodded.

"Mr. Willows, I really need this job, I can't go back to the Dawson family." Ariadne sighed.

Arthur nodded.

She expected him to ask about Wesley's father, but to his credit, Arthur remained silent.

"Let me walk you to your door, at least." he nodded to her building.

She didn't want him to see the crowded apartment, didn't want him to see her sister's pack of children. If only she hadn't been attacked, none of this would have happened.

But she couldn't say no. Not after he had saved her from those horrible street boys. She nodded numbly and together, they walked up the three flights of stairs to the apartment.

~ Arthur had followed Ariadne as soon as she left the house. He was slightly annoyed she had just left without the benefit of a goodbye or good night. Not that she owed him anything, but he didn't like that she had the last word. It annoyed him.

Then, he got the uneasy feeling that he should follow her. That it was too dark outside and that she might need him. It was the same uneasy feeling he got whenever there was trouble during his travels. His gut instinct always led him better than anything during these times and it lead him to be at the right place at the right time.

He heard Ariadne scream and raced down a dark street to find a group of six kids, boys and teenagers, pushing her around. Her cries and the shouts on behalf of her baby made him glad he had tanken his service revolver with him. He had clubbed the bigger boy, the alpha of the group, on the back of the head and he crumpled down to the floor like a rag doll. The other boys looked at him in wonder and Arthur knew he had won.

As soon as they fled, Arthur noticed for the first time, just how small and fragile looking that Miss Stevens really was.

She had always been so brave before, but she looked frightened and her large eyes were shinning with tears.

Now, as they trudged up the stairs to her home, he could see her trying to be brave once more. It didn't bother him that she had a child. He had thought, when she had said it, that she was married. Perhaps she had lied so as to gain employment. A common enough practice for many women. Maybe she was a widow, maybe her husband abandoned her. But the look of denial, the quick and transparent lies she told… he knew she was a single mother.

"How old?" Arthur asked. He wanted to put her at ease. He was a single parent after all. They had that in common.  
>"Wesley… he's six months now." she whispered. She wiped her face clumsily. Her skin streaked red from crying.<p>

"Here." He said and produced a cotton handkerchief for her to clean up with.

She took it gratefully and tried to clean away the unsightly tear stains.

"You live with your sister?" he asked.  
>She nodded.<p>

"My sister, her husband and their kids." Ariadne told him sadly. "She looks after Wesley while I'm at work."

"That's why you're not a live in maid." Arthur said.

She nodded.  
>"The early mornings and the evenings when I get home, are the only times I get to be with my son." she admitted.<p>

He hated to ask. She had never asked about Everleigh's mother, and he felt it wasn't his place to ask about her personal life. He resisted, but he couldn't help it.

"The boy's father can't help out? With money? He has a responsibility." Arthur said.

He tried to sound caring when he said it, but she glared at him hatefully.

"It's just us, Mr. Willows." she snapped.

They had reached the landing by then and she promptly turned the key to unlock a sitting room full of children. Most of them dressed for bed.  
>"Oh, you're home. I was getting worried." came a small, dark haired woman that could only be Ariadne's sister. "Here."<p>

She handed Ariadne a bald baby that was red in the face from crying and the infant calmed slightly at being in another's arms.  
>"Arthur?" Ariadne questioned as the other woman didn't seem to notice he had stepped into the apartment and looked with interest over everything.<p>

The sitting room was cozy with over stuffed armchairs and a big pink rug full of toys and rag dolls. The little ones, who would go to bed soon showed no signs of sleepiness as they played with homemade play things.

"Arthur." Ariadne whispered as her sister noticed the stranger in her home.  
>"Ari, who's this?" she asked.<br>"I'm Arthur Willows." he said with a nod. "I walked your sister home and she said I might meet Wesley."

Her sister raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"I see." she said skeptically and snapped her attention to the little ones on the floor. "Kids, bed time."

"Mamma!" a girl cried. "Papa isn't home yet!"

"Now!" spat their mother. With heavy hearts, the children tossed their toys on the floor and marched to their shared room.

Arthur watched them with amazement. They seemed like a close, happy family. Bed times and all.

Ariadne's sister shut the door to the children's bedroom and he found himself alone with Miss Stevens and the cranky baby.

"Wow." Arthur breathed and smiled.

"My sister and her husband are good people." Ariadne said sadly.

"I can see that." he agreed. He was slightly envious of the family. Although they had very little, the children all seemed very close and well cared for.

He turned to see Ariadne holding a baby that looked almost too big for her.  
>"This is Wesley." she said softly and Arthur bent over to look the baby in eye.<p>

"Hello, Wesley." he said in the same voice he found himself using with Everleigh. Just like Everleigh, the baby was not impressed and turned away form him.

"He's been a little fussy lately." she said lamely.

Ariadne had closed the front door and the three of them stood awkwardly in the sitting room.

"Are you and Wesley alright? Living here? It's pretty crowded." Arthur told her.  
>"We're fine." she said hurriedly. "I have my own room and everything."<p>

"You can't get work as a regular ladies maid because you have commitments home." he said looking at the baby.

"You can't have a child and expect to work in a grand house. You can't have a baby with no father and expect to work anywhere." she said sadly.

"Miss Stevens, who is the father? He has to take responsibility for his son. He has to support you." Arthur told her. "I've got friends who are lawyers who can help you-"

"No." Ariadne said bluntly. "I told you. I can take care of him myself."

Arthur bit back a response to this. Memories of Charlotte, Everleigh's mother, of how he never knew he had a child in this world. How Everleigh might have died in that orphanage began to boil inside him.

"Miss Stevens, does he even know?" he asked. He meant to be kind about it, but her eyes glittered with anger.  
>"He doesn't want to know." she hissed and the infant became cranky. Giving off a cry of unhappiness in her arms.<p>

"A man needs to know." he argued.  
>"Why? So he can rip my child away from me? The way you ripped Everleigh away from her mother? That's all you men want to do, isn't it? Play hero and pretend to be noble while you hurt the mothers of the world." she spat.<p>

Gone was the fragile, scared thing he had saved that night. The woman in front of him was full of fire and raw anger.

"Miss Stevens." he said calmly.

"I would prefer it if you kept your help to yourself, Mr. Willows." she said with repressed rage. "You don't know enough about the situation, and it is none of your concern. My son and I are fine."

Arthur took a step back. He knew when he had been beaten. He let out a sigh.

"I will send Jeffery here in the morning to pick you up and then take you home in the evenings. I think it's best, given what happened tonight, you no longer walk the streets alone." he said.

She didn't look at him.

"Are you going to tell your mother?" she asked. Her voice wavering.  
>"No, Miss Stevens." he said before turning to leave. "Like you said, it's none of my concern."<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

11.

~ It was raining the next morning when Jeffery delivered Miss Stevens to the house. She quickly ducked inside the kitchen, hardly noticing Arthur was there at all.

"I'm so glad Arthur thought to have the driver pick you up this morning." Mrs. Willows was saying as the light rain made the whole house smell of freshness. "I was going to have Jeffery drive you home last evening, but you had left so quickly."

Ariadne tried to look nonchalant.

"Oh, I was fine." she said.

The pair of them were going over dress catalogs for the coming season. Mrs. Willows was talking about a trip to Paris as soon as winter was over.

"My husband and I went every year." she mused. "You know, I've been thinking that your place here has been working out very well. Maybe you should stay. Live here at the house. It would be more convenient for you."

Ariadne striated up and looked at the older woman in horror.  
>"Did Arthur talk to you?" she asked.<p>

"Talk to me about what, dear?" Mrs. Willows asked.  
>"Nothing." Ariadne sighed. "It's just… well, he asked me why I'm not live in as well. I have responsibilities… to my sister… and her children."<p>

"Well, if things change, as they often do, you'd be much more comfortable here in this house." Mrs. Willows said lightly.

~ Arthur had done his best to put that Miss Stevens out of his mind for the day. He left Everleigh in the care of Miss Nolan and noticed his mother was content with her ladies maid. The two of them going over catalogs and planning things.

He had Jeffery drive him, rain or no, to the law office of his old friend, Dom Cobb.  
>"Arthur, you know you can have a position here!" Cobb laughed. The two of them had always been close and when Arthur related how he needed fiscal independence, Cobb didn't even wait for him to finish.<br>"It won't be much, mostly working in the patent office and such, but it's lucrative." he had said.  
>"Thanks." Arthur breathed in relief. "I assume you've heard the rumors about why I'm home."<p>

"That you've brought back a daughter from your travels and have no wife? Yes, I've heard." Cobb said with a little smile. "Would you mind terribly if I think you did the right thing by the child?"

Arthur smiled.  
>"It doesn't feel like I've done the right thing by her." he said sadly. "She never talks to me. Mother is always angry with me. Home… isn't exactly the comfort I was expecting it to be. I thought mother would be more of a help. Instead, she's threatened to disown me."<p>

"Well, different generation and all that." Cobb said. "Once you've settled into a place here, you can rent out a comfortable home for you and the girl."  
>"Thanks, Cobb." Arthur said with relief, but didn't move.<br>"What is it?" the goon natured man asked.

"I have a female friend, who…" Arthur avoided eye contact at this. Cobb was already interested. "Well, she's in the same situation I found myself in. She has a small son, and is in need of support from the father. How can I make that happen?"  
>"Do you know who the father is?" Cobb asked.<p>

Arthur shook his head.

"She refused to tell me." he said.

"Well, if she isn't willing to divulge the name, it means she doesn't know, or doesn't want others to know." Cobb said.

Arthur didn't think for a moment that Miss Stevens would have so many lovers as to not know the paternity of her baby.

"Why wouldn't she want the man held responsible? He needs to support his son." Arthur said tersely.

Cobb shrugged.  
>"I can investigate, if you like. What's her name?" he asked.<p>

"Her name is Ariadne Stevens and the boy's name is Wesley. She lives in one of the new apartments not far from here. She used to work for the Dawson family." Arthur explained.

Cobb nodded.  
>"Well, I can check birth records. The city will have them all on file for the public. Once we find out his name, we can decide how best to proceed from there." he offered.<p>

Arthur felt better and stood up.  
>"Thank you." he said shaking his old friend's hand.<p>

~ Everleigh was hiding under the old man's bed again.

He was asleep and snoring loudly from his chair. That angry old woman was in the other room, and the rough looking woman, 'Nanny' she called herself, was looking for her.

Everleigh crouched under the bed when she saw Nanny's shoes storm into the bedroom in search of her.

"Miss, no one is above a good washing, now!" she said harshly and the old man snorted awake.

"What?" he asked weakly.  
>"Never you mind." hushed nanny to the old man. "I'm looking for the girl. It's bath time and I'm tired of playing games."<p>

"Oh." the old man said weakly.

"Everleigh!" Nanny sang out. "Time to come out!"

To her horror, Everleigh saw Nanny's dress pool on the floor and a hand reach up for the bed skirt. Nanny's old, wrinkled face came into view and she was angry.

"There you are! Rotten girl!" she scolded and pulled Everleigh out by her arms.

Everleigh was used to rough treatment. She had been hit regularly her whole life at the orphanage, but not since she had come to live here. She had never been made to take a bath before either. That man, papa, simply ran a bath for her and trusted her to clean herself. Nanny insisted on being in the same room with her at all times. Never once leaving her alone until Everleigh was able to sneak away.

"No!" cried Everleigh in a feeble, wilted voice. She tried to kick away from nanny who simply took a firmer grip on her arms and hauled her into the bathroom.

"No arguments!" nanny said roughly pulling her.

Everleigh kicked at a side table and tried to escape.

"No kicking! You naughty thing! I'll tell your papa on you!" Nanny said and closed the bathroom door on the both of them.

"No!" Everleigh shrieked when she was alone in the bathroom with this mean woman. "No! No, bath!"

"Take your dress of, young lady. You're filthy!" Nanny ordered and started to undo the back of Everleigh's dress.

When nanny's fingers caught in Everleigh's hair and gave a hard tug, she had to cry out in pain.

"Now, this is what happens when we don't brush our hair out!" Nanny said sternly. "All tangles!"

"No!" Everleigh cried real tears now. She wasn't sure why she didn't want a bath. Normally, her bath time was nice, and relaxing. But they were always private. She didn't want to take a bath on nanny's terms.  
>"Hold still!" Nanny said. The older woman ripping out her hair bows.<p>

Nanny's hand tried to cover her mouth as she pulled at yet more snarls and Everleigh saw her chance at retaliation.

She bit the woman, hard as she could and was rewarded with being shoved into the wall.  
>"You vile little witch!" nanny shouted and before Everleigh could cry out, nanny slapped her hard on the face.<p>

~ "Jeffery, wait here for Miss Stevens." Arthur said solemnly. "She needs to be taken home."

Jeffery only nodded as Arthur jumped free of the carriage and marched up to the house. His mother beat him to the door. A look of utter anger flashing across her face.  
>"I want you to know I've sent her home, Arthur. That woman had no business being in this house." she hissed.<p>

Arthur took a step back.

"Mother." he started to explain. He hadn't breathed a word about Ariadne or her son to anyone but Cobb. How had his mother known? Did Ariadne tell the old woman?  
>"Mother, I can explain. Times are changing." he said feebly.<p>

"Times have not changed that much, Arthur. I've sent that evil cow away without a reference and next time, you'll ask me before hiring an Irish woman to be nanny in this house!" she spat.

Arthur looked at his mother stupidly.

"Miss Stevens?" he asked. He still didn't understand what was happening.  
>"Miss Stevens is in the girl's room with her, trying to give the poor thing some comfort after that so called Nanny attacked her. That girl is barely four years old and doesn't deserve that kind of treatment, Arthur. I'm all for a firm hand with child rearing, but the Irish think nothing of beating a child and I won't have that. Why, if Ariadne hadn't heard the girl screaming and intervened, she might have done the girl real harm."<p>

His mother looked angry and still Arthur wasn't sure he understood.

"Miss Nolan… hit Everleigh?" he said at last. His heart started to race. How dare anyone lay a hand on his child?

"Where is Miss Nolan now?" he said angrily.

"I just told you." His mother snapped. "I've sent her on her way and she was lucky I didn't call the authorities. I know the girl bit her, but the way she handled it was totally uncalled for. I won't have a child abused in this house, Arthur. You were the one who hired her, and you did a poor job of it." she said hatefully.

Arthur shook his head.  
>"Is Everleigh alright?" he breathed.<br>"She's fine. She didn't want to take a bath is all. Miss Stevens was kind enough to look after the girl after I dismissed that Irish cow." his mother said.

Mrs Willows was about to say more about the Irish and Miss Nolan in particular, but Arthur wasn't there to listen. He quickly bounded up the stairs to Everleigh's room.

Without knocking, he opened the door to see his daughter cuddled neatly in bed with Miss Stevens reading to her.

Both females looking shocked at the intrusion.

Ariadne was laying next to Everleigh when he opened the door and she quickly, remembering her place as a servant, stood away from the girl.

Arthur caught her eyes, worried as always before he spotted his daughter.

"Everleigh, what happened?" he asked striding over to her bed.

The girl cowered away from him and pulled her blankets up tightly to her chin. He noticed the child smelled good and her hair was shinny and neatly combed. Everleigh smelled of washing soap and ladies perfume. Arthur could only guess this was Ariadne's doing.

The girl cried slightly and avoided looking at him.

"Everleigh." Miss Steven said softly. "Remember how we talked about using your big girl voice to get what you want? How we must always tell the truth? We won't get in trouble if we tell the truth."

Ariadne's voice was soft and sincere and Everleigh looked to her for help instead of Arthur.  
>"I didn't want to take my bath. I bit nanny." she said weakly.<p>

Arthur nodded and waited for more.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nanny punished me." she offered sadly.

Arthur noticed the dark bruising on the girl's face and had to keep his anger in check.

"Well, there will be no more punishment's like that. Not ever again. Nanny is gone." he told her.  
>"I'm sorry." Everleigh said. "I just… I didn't want a bath."<p>

The girl started to cry and for the first time in her life, reached out for her father.


	12. Chapter 12

12.

~ Arthur's heart had taken on a funny rhythm he wasn't used to. It was like being in love, only not romantic. It filled him with an unexplainable happiness he didn't ever remember feeling.

Everleigh had hugged him. Relied on him for comfort tonight in a way she had never been able to show him before. The girl had always been cold with her emotions. She never smiled or showed a sign of happiness. Likewise, she had never shown sadness or anger. She had seemed incapable of any feelings until tonight.

Arthur closed the girl's bedroom door and found himself leaning close to try and hear if she was still breathing.

"I think she'll be alright, sir." Ariadne said softly. "She was very tired. I'm sure she's still asleep."

Arthur turned to the ladies maid and saw the contented little smile on her face. Her hair was a mess and her dress was wrinkled. The day had been hard on her, obviously, but she looked almost radiant just now.

"She never hugged me before tonight." Arthur said in a whisper.

Ariadne looked a little surprised, but nodded.

"Oh, Miss Stevens, I forgot to have Jeffery take you home." he realized.

She was already holding her coat to leave as they walked down the narrow hallway.

"It is getting late." she agreed.

His mother had vanished from the parlor downstairs and they were alone. Arthur tugged on Miss Steven's sleeve to halt her from leaving.  
>"I don't know how to thank you." he whispered. "For taking care of my daughter like this."<p>

"I'm a mother." she whispered back fearfully. "Of course I would protect a child."

"Miss Stevens, I have an idea." he said and leaned in closer to her. The memory of that crowded but cozy apartment where she lived still rang sharply in his mind. "Suppose Everleigh could stay with your sister during the day. I could pay her well to keep her, and Everleigh would be around other children. She must be missing other young ones."

Ariadne looked doubtful.  
>"I could pay you. Your sister I mean. She looks after…" he looked around to make sure they were alone "I mean, she looks after your boy."<p>

"Annabelle and her husband talk a lot about my sons and our situation." Ariadne whispered.

Arthur leaned in closer. His hand coming close to hers.  
>"Everleigh would know about him. If she were to repeat it-"<p>

"Everleigh doesn't talk, Miss Stevens." Arthur said with a smile.

Ariadne's face looked a thousand times more beautiful when she smiled. But her smile was gone just as quickly as it had come.

"Not to you, Mr. Willows." she said softly.

"I want you to think about it, Miss Stevens." he said gently and took her hand. Her skin felt electric and wonderful in his. A contact with another person, her hadn't realized he had been needing.

"Think about what, Arthur?" boomed a sharp voice from the parlor. Arthur and Ariadne turned to see his mother coming out of the kitchen. Her eyes focusing on the both of them. Arthur felt Ariadne pull her hand free and hid it under her coat.  
>"I was asking Miss Stevens if her sister could mind Everleigh for a few days." Arthur said coldly. He deliberately kept his voice professional and indifferent for Ariadne's sake.<p>

"My sister watches children." Ariadne chimed in.  
>"Absolutely not, Arthur. I'll not have the girl leave the house. No offense, dear. I'm sure your family is very good, but the girl needs to be with family. From now on, Everleigh will be looked after by me." Mrs. Willows said standing up strait.<p>

Both Arthur and Ariadne looked shocked.  
>"Mother?" he questioned.<p>

"I took care of you and your brothers with no one to help me." Mrs. Willows said proudly. "The girl hasn't been that much trouble. Anyway, since you can't seem to do anything other than hire Irish nannies and break my vase, I think I should look after the girl myself."

"Mother, I thought you didn't want anything to do with her." Arthur said.  
>"I never said that." His mother snapped. "I wanted what was best for her, Arthur. What is best for her is to live in a proper home with a real mother and father. Since you've always been bull headed about everything, I've decided to compromise."<p>

Arthur was silent. He didn't know what else to say. His mother looked at Ariadne.  
>"Miss Stevens, you have tomorrow off, correct?" she asked.<br>"Well yes, madam." Ariadne said softly.

"Then, I will see you Sunday afternoon." Mrs Willows said and nodded the ladies maid off.

Ariadne stood there, not realizing she had been dismissed and finally gave a little curtsey and excused herself to have Jeffery drive her home.

No sooner had the front door closed than Mrs. Willows turned cold eyes on her son.  
>"You, Arthur, are to stay away from Miss Stevens." she hissed.<p>

Arthur felt as though he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. His first impulse was to deny everything. Pretend that he didn't understand.

Instead, he glared at his mother.  
>"I know what you're doing. Isn't it enough you got one girl in trouble? I don't need you ruining another girl's life. Miss Stevens is a decent young woman and doesn't need you corrupting her. I don't want you trying to romance her and leave her disgraced as well." she hissed.<p>

Arthur ground his teeth hard. What wouldn't he love to say to the old woman about Ariadne and her illegitimate son? But he knew that he could never expose Ariadne like that. Could never hurt her in such a vile way.

"Mother, she took care of Everleigh for me today." Arthur said in a terse voice.

"We both took care of the child after Miss Nolan was dismissed." his mother said quickly. "From now on, I never want you and Miss Stevens alone together."

Arthur felt his blood want to boil over, but he kept his composure.

"I found a position with Dom Cobb's firm." Arthur said quickly. "As soon as I'm more stable, Everleigh and I will leave."

He turned away from his mother.

"The position is lucrative, mother. I may ask Miss Stevens if she'll come and be Everleigh's governess." he added casually.

~ Ariadne felt light as air on the carriage ride home. Her hand could still feel the heat of Arthur's hand when he had so briefly touched it.

She barely registered arriving home and being handed Wesley. She was in a far too happy mood when she gave her son his bath and they ate a little dinner together. Wesley, sensing his mother's happiness, curled his warm body into hers and was asleep quickly. His large, bald head feeling goon on her shoulder.

Ariadne took her son to bed with her and fought off the chill in the air with three quilts.

Like she did when she was younger, before Tom Dawson, she imagined what it was like to be with a man. To have him hold her without hurting her. To have him touch her without that cold fear of what he would do next.

Wesley was sleeping peacefully next to her, and in Ariadne's mind, she was with Arthur Willows. How nice it might be to share a bed with him. To share this bed with him. To have him cuddle next to her and thank her again for looking after his daughter.

She liked the idea so much she allowed the day dream to go on. Arthur Willows, although always angry, was a good father. Exactly the kind of man she had wished her own father would have been. The kind of man ever child needed.

Ariadne fell asleep under the dream that Arthur loved her. It was a fantastical notion that she allowed herself to enjoy.

Forgetting that she was only a humble ladies maid with an illegitimate child.


	13. Chapter 13

13.

~ It was bliss on her one day off. She woke early and fed Wesley his breakfast before helping her sister cook and clean a little. Annabelle had been looking forward to the help all week and it was nice to fall into the rhythm of cleaning and doing the dishes. Just the women and children in the house, since Annabelle's husband was already at work.  
>"So, the old lady is going to look after the kid now?" Annabelle laughed. Ariadne dried a dish and carefully put it away. She hadn't bothered to mention that Arthur had asked if Everleigh might stay here. Annabelle and her husband could use the extra money and her sister might insist, despite the risk.<p>

"Wow, it's just a never ending drama over there." Annabelle said with a sigh.

"Not really." Ariadne said defensively. "It's not easy to have your whole life change like theirs have. I've seen Arthur with his daughter and he want's to be a good father."

As soon as she said it, she knew that her sister knew.

"**Arthur** is it?" Annabelle scoffed. "You call him by his first name? I know he's handsome, but you've no business getting close to that man. He's your employer's son, not a chance for romance."

"I know. And I'm not." Ariadne said quickly. "But he knows the truth about Wesley and he was alright with it."

"The whole truth about Wesley?" Her sister said hatefully. "Because people like him and Tom, they stick together. Remember how they closed ranks and left you out in the cold?"

Ariadne bit her lip hard with the memories.

"Arthur isn't like that." she said sadly.  
>"They are all like that." her sister said. "Just because he's nice to you, doesn't mean he's going to fall in love with you. What? Did you think he would marry you and that you and him, his daughter and little Wesley here would live happily ever after?"<p>

Ariadne hated to admit that that was exactly what she thought. Exactly what she had allowed herself to fantasize about last night.

She avoided her sister's eyes.  
>"Ariadne!" Annabelle scolded. "You know better! After what happened with Tom!"<p>

"I never cared about Tom!" Ariadne snapped. "He never said a kind word to me in his life. He got drunk every night for a week before his wedding and found his was to the maids rooms. He let himself into my room, climbed on top of me like I was some kind of animal and did what he wanted. He did that every night until he got married and no matter how many times I cried to Mr. Rowling and Mrs. Hasting, they did nothing to stop him or protect me."

"They were servants. What could they do?" Annabelle said sadly.

Ariadne felt tears well up in her eyes. She had never really said out loud what Tom had done to her before. Her sister had known, the unspoken language of siblings. But Ariadne hated to say it. Hated to think about it.

"I know it's foolish to become attached to Mr. Willows." Ariadne said at last.

"Avoid him." Her sister advised. "Trust me. These rich men are all the same."

~ That evening, Bill came home later than normal. The smell of the bars was all over his clothing. It was becoming more and more common these days to find Bill drunk or asleep. Ariadne was quick to put the kids to sleep, and keep them out of the fray of any fight that might happen. The children, all except Wesley, slept in the largest room. Ariadne and her son in the second room, and Bill and Annabelle in the smaller room.

Ariadne was trying to sooth Wesley in her room when Bill started to yell at Annabelle. She kept her light off, pretended she was asleep as the sounds of furniture were knocked down and Bill shouted roughly at her sister.

Wesley gave a slight cry and his mother held him tighter as she paced the room.

The sisters had always known Bill was like this. They weren't blind to his drinking and abuse. But it was accepted that men did this to their wives if dinner was cold or the children misbehaved. Ariadne still didn't like it.

Wesley cried a little and Ariadne bounced him on her hip and tried to imagine herself back at Mrs. Willows house. She wished she and Wesley could live there. That house with it's comfortable rooms and safety from all the horrible things. The old lady had eventually forgiven her son for his daughter, maybe in a few months, Ariadne could admit to Wesley and ask to be a live in maid.

She clutched Wesley tighter to her chest when she heard her sister's body hit the floor and Annabelle cry to be left alone.

~ It was Sunday morning, and Arthur watched the clock for Miss Stevens to arrive for her half day at work. Everleigh was seated next to her grandmother at the dinner table where she was forced to endure Mrs. Willows famous lessons on table manners.

"Never any elbows on the table." the older woman said briskly and knocked the girls arms away from the table. "Also, I know I've said never to reach for anything. Ask for one of us to pass it to you. You must never reach across the table for something like… some kind of monkey. Is that clear?"

Everleigh looked away.  
>"Child, I asked if I made myself clear." Mrs. Willows said sharply.<p>

Arthur watched as Everleigh nodded.  
>"What was that?" his mother demanded.<br>"Yes, Ma'am." Everleigh said in a whisper.

Mrs. Willows held her head high in victory.  
>"Very good, child." she said soothingly. "Now, unfold you napkin onto your lap… that's correct. Always keep your napkin on your lap. I never want to see you stuff it down your front like a savage again."<p>

Arthur had to admit, his mother was forcing herself to be heard just now. Everleigh didn't like it, but she was going to be a proper lady if it killed the old woman.  
>"Mother, I'll be in the office of Mr. Cobb tomorrow." he said lightly. "Will you and Everleigh be alight here?"<p>

"Of course." Mrs. Willows said and corrected the girl's posture with a firm but gentle hand. "Miss Stevens will be here with us. Unless you plan to steal her away."

"I wasn't serious, mother." he lied.

"You most certainly were. Saying you'll take away an old woman's maid. Is there no worse thing to hear?" Mrs. Willows said bitterly.  
>"Let's not discuss that anymore." Arthur said when Everleigh gave him a worried look. "Miss Stevens will be here soon."<p>

His mother gave him a sharp, accusing look.  
>"Arthur, I don't want another incident like last night before she left. Is that clear?" she said.<p>

Arthur looked at Everleigh and gave his daughter a comforting smile.  
>"Of course, mother." he said.<p>

He didn't say a word about it after Miss Stevens left. Didn't mention how she, that Miss Stevens had played a large role in his mind last night. How he had rolled over onto his stomach and allowed himself to imagine she was there under him. How she would smell, how she would feel.

The idea of her child and her station in life didn't bother him at all. He had traveled too much to be closed minded and he had a child of his own. In truth, he liked Miss Stevens all the more for caring about his daughter as though she were her mother.

It helped to heal some of the pain Everleigh must have gone through after the orphanage.

After lunch, Arthur left his daughter alone with his mother. Mrs. Willows was intent on showing Everleigh the old copies of ladies guide books and dresses that were suitable.

He wandered about the house, wondering when Miss Stevens would arrive when he finally spotted her being delivered by Jeffery by the back garden.

Like a school boy, he rushed down the back stairs to meet her. He couldn't explain why he was so eager to see her again. Only that he had missed her and he was excited to tell her about the progress Everleigh was making.

He opened the door for the small framed woman and froze when he saw the deep bruising on her face.


	14. Chapter 14

14.

~ "What happened?" Arthur almost barked. His hands moving so fast to her face, Ariadne flinched away on instinct. Her heart thundering in her chest from the angry look he was giving her.

"Oh, I was helping my sister clean the floors yesterday and I slipped." Ariadne said with what she hoped was an easy smile.

She moved away from him again when he once more tried to touch her face.

"It's fine. I wasn't going to come in today. I didn't want to alarm Mrs. Willows." she explained.

Arthur still looked angry.

"Were those hooligans out on the street again? Did they do this to you?" he demanded and tried to catch her face in his hands.

Ariadne moved away and showed him her unblemished side.  
>"No." she said easily. "I told you, I slipped and fell."<p>

"What did you hit?"

"Sorry?"

"What did you hit when you fell?" he asked.

She felt her heart start to beat quickly.

"I just fell on the floor." she told him simply.  
>"Did you hit a table or chair? Because a floor wouldn't give you that black eye, Miss Stevens." he said harshly.<p>

"Mr. Willows." she sighed. "I don't want to make more out of this than it already is."

She looked around the empty hallway to make sure they were alone.

"Was it Wesley's father?" Arthur demanded in a hushed whisper. "Did he do this to you?"

Ariadne felt insulted and glared at him with the good side of her face.

"Are you still… _involved_ with him?" Arthur accused delicately.  
>"That is not your business." Ariadne told him.<br>"It is if he's hurting you. Is the baby in danger?" he demanded.

"I told you, I fell. End of story." Ariadne said quickly. "My son and I are not your responsibility."

"Ariadne." he said. Her name feeling strange once he said it to her face.

She turned to look at him, ashamed of the bruises that were so plain on her skin.  
>"You're right. It's not my business. If you need help, if you need a safe place for you and Wesley, you have it here. But I would want… I would want to know if the boy's father is in your lives." he said seriously.<p>

Ariadne felt herself weaken at the sight of real sincerity in Arthur's eyes. Her sister's warning came screaming back about how no one, especially not the wealthy, could be trusted. Annabelle was right. Arthur Willows was only pretending to offer his friendship because he wanted something more. He wanted her to give into him like countless other maids did to men like him. He no doubt thought she was a loose woman already. To have a child without a husband first. It was normal for men like him to seduce the maids. It was the girl's burden to bare if she became pregnant.

Anger, hot and ready to boil over took hold of her body and commanded her to speak.

"Mr. Willows, my son and I are fine. I'm here to be a ladies maid to your mother. Not become your mistress." she said smoothly.

She immediately regretted saying what she did.

Arthur looked shocked at first. Then angry and rightfully insulted.

"Miss Stevens, do not think my offer of concern was anything more than that of a good samaritan." he said coldly. His eyes burning dark and low with resentment. "I'll tell mother that you're ill, and will require a few days rest. You're right, it's best not to upset her. Have Jeffery take you home."

"I can walk." she said with her voice trembling.  
>"Then walk." he said darkly and left her alone in the servant's hallway.<p>

~ Arthur observed Miss Stevens leaving the house from the second floor window. He felt his face burn with embarrassment at being rejected. Had he given himself away? She had known that he had become taken with her. She had dismissed his newly born affections as though the very idea was an insult.

He caught the side of her face with the deep bruising. Bruising on her pretty skin made him even more angry than her rejection of his offer to help her.

In an ideal world, a world uncomplicated by his mother's standards and the gossip of strangers, Arthur entrained the idea that Ariadne and her son would somehow seek refuge here. That he could protect her and her son from all the evils. But the idea was nothing if the child's father had returned to their lives.

Arthur could just picture him. A thuggish boar of a man who drank too much and bullied Ariadne for any minor infraction. Who gambled and saw other women when he wasn't busy not providing for his own child.

The idea of this man sickened Arthur.

"Papa?" came a soft voice and Arthur was pulled out of his loathing to see Everleigh looking up at him. He had been so lost in his own day dream that he hadn't noticed the girl had come up the stairs to stand beside him.  
>"Yes, dear." he said easily. As though nothing at all was wrong.<p>

Everleigh looked like she didn't want to say anything. But her large brown eyes, his eyes, spoke volumes.

"What is it?" Arthur asked and knelt down to her level.  
>"That lady is making me look at old newspapers." she whispered. Her nose wrinkling up in annoyance.<p>

Arthur let out a long sigh. He could just imagine his poor mother, lonely for company and missing society, trotting out all the clippings from balls and parties she had attended years ago. Socialite gatherings where the papers described ever detail of each gown and who was escorted by whom.

His mother loved these pleasing little details that reminded her of when she was younger, and kept scrap books dedicated to them.

"Darling, Miss Stevens is ill today, so we must keep grandmother company." he whispered.

Everleigh scowled at him in a way that there could be no mistake as to her paternity.  
>"I know." Arthur said. "I'll be there with you. Don't worry."<p>

"When will Miss Stevens be back?" Everleigh demanded. Her eyes suspicious and looking for the truth.

"A few days at most." he assured her.

"She isn't gone forever?" Everleigh asked.

"No, darling." he whispered. "Now, let's go entertain grandmother. She needs our company."

~ Ariadne arrived home to a quite house. The children were all with a neighbor and she could feel the tension spinning in a home that was normally full of laughter and happiness.

"Annabelle?" Ariadne called out. She tried not to look at the empty place where the little inn table used to be. A table that had been smashed when Annabelle's husband had been hitting her.

The two women had spent the morning cleaning up the mess so the children wouldn't see. Hiding the unpleasant realities of domestic violence.

"Here." groaned a weak voice from the smallest bedroom. Ariadne went to her sister and was relived to see her face looked much better. Annabelle had cleaned herself up and the swelling had gone down, but there was no mistaking the broken nose and two black eyes.

Ariadne had been worried that Bill would kill her and tried to stop the beating, only to be punched herself.  
>"Feeling better?" she asked. Annabella nodded sadly. Her eye swollen almost shut, but her body still moving at normal speed.<br>Ariadne felt guilt at seeing her sister like this.  
>"I shouldn't have tried to stop him." she said weakly.<p>

"No, you shouldn't have. Bill was mad at me and you got in his way." Annabelle snapped.

"He was going to kill you!" Ariadne sobbed.

Her sister hushed her.  
>"He's never even come close. He was just mad. Man like that, you just gotta stay out go their way."<p>

"Did you talk to him?" Ariadne asked hopefully.  
>Annabelle nodded.<p>

"I'm sorry, Ari. He still want's you and Wesley gone." she said.

Ariadne watched her sister hobble to the kitchen and start cleaning.  
>"Did you tell him I don't have anyplace to go? That I give you money to live here?" Ariadne choked back a sob.<br>"Of course I did." Annabelle snapped. "He's going out of town on a job for two days. He says he want's you gone before he gets back."

Ariadne tried not to cry, but she couldn't help it. Where would she and Wesley go? Who would look after her baby while she was working?

"Look." Annabelle sighed. "I can give you some money to stay at one of those women's hotels. They don't allow babies, but maybe we can sneak Wesley in. He's always been a quite little man. Maybe, by then, Bill will have enough time to cool off and I can convince him we need the money you bring in."

Ariadne shook her head.

"Annabelle, we have no one!" she said through tears.

Her sister refused to look at her.  
>"I'm doing all I can, Ari. I've saved up twelve dollars Bill doesn't know about. Maybe it's enough to get you and Wesley an apartment in Brooklyn." she said.<p>

"Brooklyn?" Ariadne laughed. "That's too far away! I'd have to leave my job and take on factory work."

"We have to do what we have to do." Annabelle snapped.  
>"Why don't you and the kids come with us then?" Ariadne asked hopefully. "We have two days to move out."<br>"I can't leave my husband." Annabelle said sadly. "We have children. Children need a father."

"They don't need a father like him." Ariadne snapped.

Annabelle glared at her.

"Children need a father." she repeated coldly.


	15. Chapter 15

15.

~ "Now, here we have the infamous duchess." Mrs. Willows droned on. Arthur felt his eyes roll in the back of his head. He wished he could figure out how to cut this evening short without appearing rude.

"She and her husband resided in Chatsworth Hall. A beautiful palace with gardens. Her son, the bachelor Duke, never married, built a great green house-"

"Why is her hair so funny?" Everleigh scowled at the picture at the book.

Arthur snapped his head up and tried not to smile at his daughter's look of annoyance.

"Well, that is just how they wore their hair back then, dear." Mrs. Willows said with a shrug. "It was a sign of their social class."

"It looks silly." Everleigh said. Her little face stern and unyielding in her opinion.

"Well, back then it the height of fashion." Mrs. Willows explained.

"How did she get her hair to do that?" Everleigh asked. Her eyes still examining the absurdity of such a look.

"She wore a wig."

"She was bald?" Everleigh gasped.  
>"No, dear, everyone wore wigs back then. Even the men." Mrs. Willows explained.<p>

"The men looked like ladies?" Everleigh asked in shock.  
>"No, dear." Mrs. Willows sighed.<br>"Yes, they did. They had long hair they tied back with ribbons and even pained their faces and wore heels." Arthur interrupted.  
>"Arthur!" his mother hissed.<p>

Everleigh glared at him for interrupting the conversation.  
>"Everleigh, you've spent enough time indoors. Why don't you go and play in the back garden?" Arthur asked.<p>

The girl nodded and left the cozy little sitting room for the warm sunlight of a late spring. As soon as they were alone, his mother snapped at him.

"You don't need to encourage her. If she's going to be received one day, she will need to be a lady. I have my misgivings about you raising her alone with only that Irish cleaning lady who comes in."

Arthur stretched out in his chair and was grateful he was finally in his own home. It was a small brick building without much of the comforts he had been used to, but it was near a park and good school for Everleigh. It was more than enough for the two of them.

"Mother, we're getting along fine." he said.  
>"That Mr. Cobb has you working too many hours." Mrs. Willows said irritably.<p>

"Mother, I have to earn a living." he said. "It's important."

"You don't need to be here in this small house. I mean, only three bedrooms? Only one sitting room? It's a wonder you don't drive each other mad." she huffed.  
>Arthur said nothing. He liked his small house and his simple life and nothing his mother could say would make him change his mind.<br>"Have you found anything on Miss Stevens?" she asked at last.

Arthur knew this was coming. It had been three months since he saw her last. Saw her leave the grand house and walk home. That deep bruise on her poor face.

"No mother." he said. "Her sister said she took a job offer out west."

"Barbaric place." his mother huffed. "I can not fathom why she left so suddenly and with no notice. I thought she was happy."

Arthur wanted so say he thought she was happy to. But he knew too much about why she left. Things he could never tell his mother about.

A few days after Ariadne had left, Arthur went to the apartment to apologize to her. After all, he had no right to judge what Ariadne did when she was away from work. Her home life, with that child's father wasn't his concern. If he hit her, it wasn't for him to worry about.

He had knocked on the door of the apartment to find it opened by one of the younger children. A sad look on her little face and a sitting room in chaos. Babies crying, and shouting coming from the bedroom.

Arthur peered nervously around the door to see Ariadne's sister and a large burly man arguing.

"I don't care, Annie!" he bellowed. "It's my drinking money!"

"We don't have food enough for the babies, Bill!" she shrieked.

Arthur sensed the conversation was going bad and backed away back into the common hall. Sure enough, the large man burst through the front door like a raging bull. He reeked of sweat and booze, and it was only noon.

Arthur was quick to jump out of his way and escaped all notice.

What was left in the big man's wake was a weeping woman in the door way and a howling baby, not Wesley, in her arms.

"Miss?" Arthur said softly. The woman, obviously Ariadne's sister, noticed him in the hallway for the first time.  
>"I remember you. What do you want?" she sniffed.<br>"I was looking for your sister. For Ariadne? She hasn't been to work in a few days." Arthur asked.

He saw the dark bruises mixed in with fresh, red marks from recent fighting.

The woman shook her head.  
>"Ari hasn't been here. My husband made her move out." the woman sniffed.<br>"Moved? Where?" Arthur demanded.

The Woman shrugged.  
>"I gave her some money and she moved. My husband didn't want her in the house anymore." she said.<p>

"Was that your husband?" Arthur asked nodding to the stairs. The woman nodded.

Arthur felt a bitter ball of hate forming in his chest.  
>"Was he the one who but those bruises on you? Who bruised Miss Stevens?" he asked.<p>

The sister glared at him. She had Ariadne's same angry stare.  
>"I don't know where she lives now, sir." she said. "But I know she doesn't want to see you."<p>

"Ma'am." Arthur snapped before she could slam the door in his face. "Let me hop you."

He produced from his pocket some cash and held it up to her face.

The woman looked greedily at the ten dollar bill before snatching it away.  
>"I think she's in Brooklyn. Staying with a Jewish family." she said quickly.<br>"That's all?" Arthur barked. "What about Wesley's father? Is he taking care of the child?"

The woman laughed.

"Tom Dawson?" she said. "He doesn't even know he has a son by her. He does this to all the poor maids he takes a liking to."

Arthur didn't understand at first what she said.  
>"Tom Dawson?" he asked. "From the Dawson family? The ones she used to work for?"<p>

"The very same. Mind you, my sister isn't a tramp. She wasn't seduced or anything. He just forced himself into her room and did as he pleased. That's how she got landed with his bastard and put out on the street." the woman sniffed.  
>"Again you mean." Arthur said darkly.<p>

~ Arthur closed his eyes at the bitter memory of meeting Ariadne's sister and finding out about Wesley's parentage. He knew Tom Dawson. They had gone to school together and there wasn't anything that made Arthur doubt Tom was a rapist.

What else could he do? Arthur had offered more money, but the sister didn't know where Ariadne had gone. Only that she was in Brooklyn and maybe living with a Jewish family. Needle in a haystack.

His mother droned on and on about missing Miss Stevens and how Everleigh was going to start school soon and would need a new dress. How Miss Stevens would have helped her find a new school dress if she hadn't gone out west for a new job.

~ Work was a desperately needed distraction form life for Arthur. It was always busy in the law office and he could keep his mind off all his worries while he was in the print shop, or filling out forms, or sending out letters. His job meant he was setting type for patent certification and forms, sending letters, reading letters, evaluating the marketability of loans. It never ended for him. But he was grateful he actually liked it enough.

Not long after his mother's Sunday visit, Cobb found him in the press room.

"Arthur." Cobb said brightly.  
>"Busy." Arthur grumbled. The ink was too dark on the certificates and the wills that were needing to be copied to twenty other lawyers.<p>

"It's about that Miss Stevens you were asking after a few months ago." Cobb said. "We finally have something."

Arthur's attention was aroused and he forgot the ink problem quickly.

"What is it?" Arthur demanded.

"It seems an adoption petition has come to city hall. Just a query for now, nothing is official yet. A Mr. and Mrs. Koufax of Brooklyn are adopting a Wesley Stevens from his mother Ariadne Stevens.


	16. Chapter 16

16.

~ Ariadne was warming up to Brooklyn. It still had a county feel to it compared to the city. It was more populated and the buildings were full of people, but it was a cozy fit.

The immigrant population was booming and she was surrounded my families all speaking languages she couldn't understand and couldn't place.

There were the Italians down the block, the Polish who lived in the building opposite her, and the Irish and Germans all around them. She turned down a back ally way were there was a maze of white sheets hanging out to dry. For seven stories striate up, there was laundry coming from every open window. Everything from bedding to baby dippers flapped in the warm sun to dry and no one cared what their neighbors thought.

The building she had come to call home was a modest one. There was only four floors and four apartments on each floor with a deli on the street level. For whatever reason, most of the tenants were of the same family. Their natural instinct telling them to stay close together in this strange country.

Ariadne nodded to Mrs. Koufax, the oldest member of the family. She had drug her rocker out into the sunshine of her back porch, hoping to warm her old bones.  
>"How was the factory?" she asked in a deep german accent. Her face kind and interested in things around her.<p>

"Busy." Ariadne admitted. "They keep upping production and won't hire more girls."

She stepped onto the back porch and sat next to the aging woman who had come from the old country when she was still a teenager.

"Don't wear yourself out at the factory." Mrs. Koufax scolded. "I talk to my youngest, Raymond. He owns jewelry store across bridge. You be shop girl."

"That's nice, but right now, I need all the money I can get." Ariadne sighed.

Mrs. Koufax nodded.

"America. All about money." She sighed.

Ariadne nodded, stood and left the old lady to her thoughts.

Inside, the building was teaming with life. Teenage girls were getting ready to go dancing with their dates. The doors to each little apartment was thrown open wide as they ran half dressed to another room in search of a hair ribbon or perfume that they hadn't worn before. It was less like an apartment building and more like a real home. Only flocked with more people. Smells of cooking and the sounds of women fighting with each other met Ariadne as she climbed the stairs. Her back was hurting and her feet were sore. She couldn't wait to have time to herself tonight so she could enjoy a long soak in the bath tub.

"Ariadne!" called one of the girls. Her high voice desperate for help. "You're late and you said you'd do my hair!"

"I'm coming!" Ariadne shouted back at her. She regretted ever letting it slip she had been a ladies maid in a grand house. Now, she made extra money doing fashionable hair styles, and sewing dresses for the seven teenage girls that lived here. They all worked in factories like she did, and had the odd dime to pay her for the extra labor. Ariadne was able to save more than she ever had before in her life.

She almost didn't mind the hours and hours on her feet.

"Hurry!" the girls called. "Johnny is picking me up to go to the dance hall in an hour!" another girl shouted.

Ariadne laid her bag down in front of the door, confidant nothing would be stolen while she was playing the role of stylist.

Rose and Rachael, the twins on her floor took forever to get ready and their hair was the mess of unruly curls that were not in fashion.

Ariadne had to iron out the curls, pin their hair carefully back, and hope the humidity wouldn't undo everything.

"You're a miracle worker!" Rachael breathed and handed Ariadne a quarter for her trouble.

Ariadne tucked the coin in her pocket and helped Rosalyn pin back her hair that was too short for a real gibson.

They barely made it out the door, all those giggling girls on their dates. They were off having fun with their friends and dancing with the boys. Ariadne felt a knot for in her chest that would be called envy. She had never gone dancing in her life. She had worked since she was fourteen at the Dawson house and then for Mrs. Willows. Her factory work was a rude awakening to how hard labor really was.

She wasn't used to the long hours on her feet, or the smell of plastic and glass. How she was expected to work so fast and not make a mistake. Still, it paid better than any job she had ever had at ten dollars a week. With the extra money she brought in sewing and helping her neighbors with odd chores, she would have a decent amount saved up.

Maybe then, that uneasy feeling in her chest would go away.

She trudged up the stairs to the top floor and to the Koufax's apartment. There was Ronald Koufax and his wife Vera. The oldest son of the lady downstairs. A man who had lived in America his whole life but refused to live far from his poor old mother. So, he kept her on the ground floor while he stayed safely on the top. The old lady would never climb that many stairs and as a result, the risk of her unexpected visit was minimal.

There was also two more floors filled with his sisters and their husbands. His two brothers and their wives and nieces and nephews everywhere you looked. It was an arrangement Ariadne wasn't used to, but found it worked for them. They were accustomed to leaving doors open all day. Of someone's daughter coming in to borrow sugar for baking. For there to be a line at the bathroom and for the boys to use the bathroom on the second floor only.

The building wasn't owned by the family, but Ariadne understood what the neighbors all meant when they said 'The Koufax' building.

One the ground floor, not far off from the matriarch of the brood, her sons and daughters, ran a kosher deli and were successful in this wild neighborhood. Ariadne soon took it for granted that there was always fresh meat and cheese at every meal. That she could eat anything she wanted and no one would care.

It was a blessing to have found this family.

"It's late." sighed Vera when Ariadne finally breezed in.

"I had to do hair." Ariadne told her and nodded to Wesley happily bouncing on Ronald's lap. Her baby was chewing on a new stuffed duck that she had bought him with her wages last week.  
>"He loves his duck." Vera said as if reading her thoughts.<p>

Ariadne went to her baby and Ronald lived the boy up to greet her.  
>"How has he been?" she asked. The baby's weight was getting too much for her these days. She couldn't hold him much longer if he was planning on getting bigger.<p>

"Teething." Vera told her and stirred some soup. "I took him down to mother Koufax and she fixed him a remedy. His gums feel better now, but you should have seen the look on his face when she applied that paste."

Ronald laughed.  
>"All babies have learned not to trust mother. She's a sneaky thing. The cure is worse than the ailment." he said.<p>

Ariadne held Wesley close to her and surveyed the railroad style apartment.

Vera and Ronald never had children, aside from their brood nieces and nephews. Their apartment was small, but they had given Ariadne and Wesley the sitting room to stay in. They had even found her a job in the factory so she could make money.

Vera took excellent care of Wesley during the day, and they didn't charge her for rent or even food.

She took Wesley to the sitting room where her little bed was squeezed into the homey looking space. It was used as a day bed before she came, but seemed ready for her to stay there as long as she wanted. Her son would need his own bed soon enough, but right now, he seemed content bunking with her every night.

Ariadne changed out of her work dress and into her house gown. She checked Wesley for wetness and found he was dry. Vera was getting his bathroom timed perfectly. She had experience with all babies and he wasn't the burden to her he had been with Ariadne's sister.

Wesley smiled at her. His eyes sleepy and she knew he was about to go down for a brief nap before dinner.

She tucked him into bed and he was breathing deeply before she finished folding his covers neatly over his little body.

She smiled at her son. He had stayed awake to see her and she loved hime more than anything.

"Dear? Come get dinner." Vera called.

The kitchen was in the next room, small but cozy with it's little table and large stove. Vera gave her a bowl of soup and fresh made bread to eat. Ariadne remembered she had only some lunch meat, cheese and an apple for her noon meal ate gratefully.

"Vera." Ariadne said after she had finished. "I've made a decision about Wesley."

Both Vera and her husband sat up strait and listened.

"I really appreciate you taking us in the way you did. I had no means to take care of him and when you offered to adopt him, I know I was less than grateful when I said no." Ariadne sighed. "But, seeing how you take care of him. How you can provide him with a home and family. I've changed my mind."

Vera looked happy but Ronald looked skeptical.

"If we adopt him, in the eyes of the law, he will be our son." he said.

"I know that." Ariadne told him. "I know that I won't have a claim to talked before about how I could still be apart of his life. How, Wesley would be told I'm one of his Aunts until he's old enough. That I could live close by and still see him."

"You could live here as long as you want." Vera said hopefully. "When mother Koufax passes, you can rent her place."

"I think I might want my own place." Ariadne said. "Close to all of you, I think. I know I've missed a lot having him. I want to get married someday soon, and I can't do that with a baby. Besides, Wesley needs a real family. He needs a mother and a father. He needs cousins and you have all of that and more here. I know you'd never take him away from Brooklyn. I can watch him grow up and hopefully…"

Ariadne felt her lower lip tremble. It had sounded so good in her head, but she couldn't bare the idea of a night without her son.

"I know this is best for him." she whispered. "It's best for everyone.


	17. Chapter 17

17.

~ Wesley had been in a good mood all day. It was one of those happy moments hat Ariadne made herself remember in every detail.

She wanted to capture forever the image of her son crawling across the rug. How he would grin at her with his chubby baby face. She wished she had the money to have his picture taken. Maybe it was better this way. She could keep him only in her memory and he would be a perfect baby forever.

The Koufax's were out that morning and left Ariadne almost entirely alone in the building. She had signed a few documents and there would be a health and wellness inspector coming to visit them some time today to ensure Ariadne was really willing to part with her child.

Every day she changed her mind about the adoption. Every morning when she woke up with Wesley smiling at her, she wanted to keep him. But her heart was so weak now. Her courage was broken apart and wounded beyond repair.

Of course she couldn't keep him. She couldn't even afford to care for herself in this rough world, much less all of his needs. She had lied to people about being a single mother and she knew the truth would always come out. She would have to make a clean start in life and hope the Koufax's would take good care of her child. That he would come to forget about her completely and think of Vera as his mother.

Ariadne was memorizing the way Wesley started to crawl when there was a knock at the door.

She jumped at the sudden intrusion into her quite refuge from the world and had to remind herself it was only the health inspector come to see Wesley and to make sure the home he was being adopted into was suitable.

She lifted her son up and put him in the wooden playpen before rushing to the kitchen. She wanted the inspector to see she was a good mother, and the home he would be living in would be better than anything she could provide.

She had expected to see a middle aged man or a stout woman, the shock of Arthur Willows, his fine suit, his hat in hands took her by surprise.

"Mr. Willows." she said in alarm.

Arthur gave her a rare, weak smile. One that didn't reach his eyes.  
>"I'm sorry to drop in on you like this." he said gently. "I was just in the neighborhood… and um… your sister." he said humbly.<p>

"Annabelle knows I'm here?" Ariadne asked skeptically.

"No." Arthur said quickly.

She waited for him to continue and took int he sight of a deep blush creeping up his neck.

"I wanted to see you, Miss Stevens." he admitted at last. "May I come in?"

~ Ariadne fixed him a cup of coffee from the large oven range. She wasn't used to all the cooking Vera did during the day and her first lessons on baking and other things had been hard going. It was so much work for just a meal. She doubted she would have a future as a cook.

It was odd to have Arthur here in her home. His eyes looking over every detail of the humble apartment.  
>"You sleep there?" he asked and nodded to the little bed in the sitting room. Wesley was content in his playpen. His fat hands pushing wooden beads around the bars.<br>"Wesley and I do. Yes." she told him. The water in the percolator was a long way from boiling and she felt awkward with Arthur here.  
>"The Koufax's." Arthur said at last. "They took you in?"<p>

"I was trying to find someone who would watch Wesley for me while I was at work." she explained and sat down at the kitchen table. "One of the cousins who lives here told me that Vera and her husband could help me. They took me in that day. Found me a good job at the factory not far from here. I make more money there."

Arthur nodded and looked at Wesley.  
>"Did you want them to adopt the boy?" he asked cooly.<p>

She jumped at what he had said.

"Who told you about that?" she demanded.

"They went through the law office where I work. The adoption proceedings." he explained carefully.  
>"They had offered to take him. Raise him as their own." she said and looked away from him. The coffee wasn't ready yet and she wished she had an excuse to kick him out already. She was very uncomfortable having Arthur here.<br>"Is that what you want?" he asked.  
>"It's what's best."<p>

"But is that what you want?" he demanded.

She looked at him.

"A child needs a real family." she said in a whisper.

"He has a family. He has his mother." he offered.  
>"He needs a mother and a father."<p>

"Ariadne, your sister told me what happened. I know it was her own husband who hit you. She also told me about the Dawson family. About Wesley's father. I know we can't make him take responsibility-"

"That is none of your business!" Ariadne snapped at him. She felt her skin crawl at the idea of Tom Dawson. Of what happened.

Arthur leaned back.  
>"You shouldn't have to give up your son because of what happened to you. It wasn't your fault." he said plainly.<br>"Tom Dawson isn't likely to come forward and take care of us, like you said, Mr. Willows." Ariadne said stiffly. "Besides, I don't want him to think he can just take my child from me like you took Everleigh from her mother."

She wished she hadn't said it. It wasn't her way to be so harsh and uncaring with her words. She expected Arthur to yell at her, but was comforted by the knowledge that he wasn't a party to her employment anymore. She could say what she wanted to him.  
>She chanced a look at him and saw he was transfixed by Wesley playing in his crib.<p>

"Everleigh." he sighed at last. His sprit seeming to have broken. "I never knew about Everleigh until a few weeks before you and I ever met, Miss. Stevens."

She sat still and watched him watching her son.

"Everleigh's mother was… very beautiful and full of life. I loved her very dearly." he looked back at her and she caught the sincerity in his eyes. "We were young and thought we could run off together and live happily. Then she went away and I never knew why."

Ariadne heard the percolator pop and the rich smell of coffee waft through the air. She stayed perfectly still and let Arthur continue.  
>"Years later, we met again in Greece. She was traveling with her husband and new baby when we ran into each other by chance. She told me privately about Everleigh. About the orphanage she was in. She wasn't like you, Miss. Stevens. She wasn't brave enough to protect our child. She wasn't willing to go against her parents. To give up her own happiness for our daughter's. When I found Everleigh, she was in rags. She was too thin and she never spoke. She was living in squalor at that horrible place and I have to live with the knowledge that for the first few years of her life, I failed her."<p>

He looked back at Wesley and Ariadne was sure his voice was about to break.  
>"The last time we spoke, Miss. Stevens, was the very first time she called me Papa. She's started to sleep in her own bed and she… smiles now." he admitted. "I wanted to tell you that she's happy. If her mother comes back to try and claim her, I could never give her up. I've only had her a short time, Miss. Stevens and I would give up everything before I lost my child. I don't want you to have to give up your baby."<p>

Ariadne didn't realize she had been crying until a tear fell on her cheek. She quickly brushed it away before he could see.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." she whispered and stood to pour the coffee.

"Only mother knows." Arthur explained. "I'm sorry to trouble you with the sordid details."

Ariadne shook her head.  
>"I thought you had taken the girl from her mother." she admitted sadly.<br>"Miss. Stevens, if you want to keep your son, I think you should. If it's about finical support for him, it shouldn't be." he explained.

"Tom isn't-"

"I'm not talking about Tom Dawson." Arthur snapped. "I've moved out of mother's house and into a home of my own. I have a maid who comes in, but she can only do so much. Mother has taken to training Everleigh to be a lady and I'm worried the child might lose her mind."

Ariadne had to smile.  
>"Your mother is just lonely. She needs company with your father so ill." she told him.<br>"I want you and Wesley to come stay. Everleigh is behind in her schooling and I know you can help her catch up. Mother misses you and it would be a great help to have you looking over the house. Wesley can stay with you and you don't have to give him up."

"What would your mother say?" Ariadne argued.

"Let me worry about mother." Arthur snapped. "My only goal in life is Everleigh and her happiness. She's happier around you."

Ariadne felt a tightness in her chest.  
>"I'm not looking for an… an <em>arrangement<em>, Mr. Willows. I may have a child and no husband, but I'm not-"

"I know you're not, Miss. Stevens." he snapped. His old anger coming back. "I promise you and Wesley will have the attic rooms and never will I trespass there."

Wesley gave out a loud cry for attention. As though weighing in his opinion.

Arthur, to her great surprise, went to the playpen and lifted the boy up easily.

"What do you say, young gentleman? Can you convince you mama to look after us?" he asked

The baby responded by grabbing hold of Arthur's cheek and trying to bite him.

"He's hungry." Ariadne explained quickly.

She was about to take the child from him when there was a loud, self important knock on the door.

"Who's that?" Arthur asked.  
>"Health inspector. About the adoption." Ariadne explained.<p> 


	18. Chapter 18

18.

**~ Six months later ~**

~ "I just don't understand." Mrs. Willows said fitfully. Arthur was trying to redo the tie around his father's neck. The older man smiling happily at his son. Blissfully unaware of what was happening.  
>"What's to understand, mother?" Arthur sighed. He was growing tired of these arguments with her. They were like going around in a large circle. An argument with no end.<p>

"Why don't you just marry Miss. Stevens? Then, Everleigh could have a mother, her son could have a decent father and the two of you wouldn't be living in… well, _in sin_." his mother hissed.

"It's not like that, mother." Arthur sighed. "Miss. Stevens is taking care of Everleigh."

"I know what that really means." Mrs. Willows said spitefully. "I don't want you to get that poor girl in trouble. She's had it hard enough in life. You should marry her and make her an honest woman."

Arthur sighed heavily.

~ Everleigh wasn't used to wearing such fancy dresses.

"It's only for a little while." Ariadne assured her. "It doesn't take long for our pictures to be made and then your grandmother will be happy."

"It itches." Everleigh complained.

"When we get home, you can change into your play clothes again."

"It's too many ruffles." the girl added.

"Well, you look very pretty." Ariadne told her.

Everleigh had to agree. She wasn't used to her hair looking so shiny and being curled so neatly in ringlets with a large pink bow in the back.

"You look pretty to, Miss. Stevens." Everleigh told her.

She admired the way her new nanny dressed for the great event of having her picture taken. She was in a soft blue dress with delicate lace brushing over the bodice and sleeves.  
>"Thank you, Everleigh." Ariadne smiled. "But once we're home, I'll change into something more practical as well."<p>

"Will you marry papa in that dress?" the girl asked.

She smiled at the look of surprise on her nanny's face.

"Why do you thin your papa and I are getting married?" Ariadne asked.

Everleigh shrugged.

"Grandma wan't you to. Grandma always gets her way." the girl explained.

"Well, grandma isn't getting her way this time." Ariadne laughed.

"So you don't want to marry papa?" Everleigh asked sadly.  
>"I didn't say that, dear." Ariadne said. "Marriage isn't something to enter into lightly. When you're older, you'll understand."<p>

~ Ariadne took longer to get Wesley ready for the picture. Her son was dressed in a little suit that the baby hated more than Everleigh hated her dress.

"Give him to me." Arthur commanded sharply when her son refused to be stuffed into his little dinner jacket.

Wesley stopped crying the instant Arthur picked him up. His poor mother no longer strong enough to hold such a large boy these days.  
>"Arthur is very god with the boy." Mrs. Willows whispered in her ear.<p>

Ariadne felt her eyes roll. _Not this again._

The photographer was setting up a simple background to take the different family pictures and Wesley was allowing Arthur to dress him without argument.

"I'm only saying this because I care." Mrs. Willows went on. "You've been so good for him and Everleigh. I can see my son has affection for you. There is no earthly reason why you shouldn't marry him."  
>"Mrs. Willows, I'm not looking to get married." Ariadne told the older lady for what felt like the hundredth time.<p>

"Your son needs a father and Everleigh needs a mother." Mrs. Willows whispered desperately. "It would make us all so happy if I could call you my daughter."

Ariadne looked at the older woman and smiled. Mrs. Willows had taken the news of Ariadne's son far better than Arthur's daughter. She had been entirely on Ariadne's side in the matter. Insisting that it wasn't her fault, that she was a victim and that the best thing for everyone was for Arthur to marry her as soon as possible. It was an idea she refused to let go of.

Ariadne and Arthur had not even told his mother all the vastly details of Wesley's conception and never planned to.

"Mrs. Willows, Arthur and I are not like that. He's my employer." Ariadne said as they watched Arthur bounce Wesley in his arms. Everleigh looking bitterly at the interaction between her beloved papa and a potential rival.

The girl liked Wesley well enough. She liked helping Ariadne take care of the baby, but refused to share her father love with any other child.

"Things change." Mrs. Willows whispered. "I've seen you with him. How you look at each other. You make him very happy."

"Alright, Miss. Lets have you and the boy." The photographer shouted impatiently.

Ariadne left Mrs. Willows and took the little chair in front of the back drop. Arthur quickly placed Wesley in her lap now that the baby was happy again.  
>"Brave face, darling." he whispered. "I told you it would be fun watching mother squirm."<p>

"It's still not every nice." she whispered back to him. "When should we tell them?"

"When the game gets boring." he offered and shrugged.

She was smiling wide when the photographer snapped her picture with Wesley.

"Mr. Willows, now you and your family." the photographer said.

Ariadne made to move herself out of frame.

"Wait! Miss Stevens and Wesley should stay, don't you think, Arthur?" Mrs. Willows cried helplessly as Arthur positioned his father behind him. The photographer brought in another chair for him to sit in and Everleigh was quick to jump on her father's lap. Happy to be his child in the picture.

"Mrs. Willows, I'm not family." Ariadne said and she and Arthur exchanged little grins that his mother didn't see.

"Nonsense." Mrs. Willows huffed and stood beside her husband. "You stay right there, dear."

The photographer, tired of taking pictures of the whole of New York, went back under the black hood.

"Hold still for ten seconds!" he ordered.

**~ END ~ **

**I've decided that this will be my last "Inception" story. **

**I've been writing A&A fic for a long time now. Four years and over 90 stories! WOW! I think I've done everything I can with these characters. **

**I will keep writing, but I've got a new story and new fan fiction I hope all of you will love. **

**Thank you so much to all my readers. **

**Add me to your Arthur Alerts to see what I do next. I promise not to disappoint.**

**Leah.**


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